The Strategic Business Blog

Ingar Grev - The Growth Coach - interview on the Arnette Report December 2011

2012-01-15T01:03:00.003-05:00

Ingar Grev of the Growth Coach (http://www.DCGrowthCoach.com) returnsto The Arnette Report on Comcast Reston Community TV (http://www.rctv28.com/). Ingar was interviewed by Jeff and KarinArnette on December 1, 2011. Originallyaired December 2011.

What comes next after walking on the moon?

2012-01-10T23:39:00.000-05:00

Back in 1995, I had the good fortune of spending four hours alone with America’s first man in space: Rear Admiral Alan Shepherd. I walked into the office of one of my bosses, Jack Lengyel, who was the athletic director at the Naval Academy at the time, to ask him permission to hold my wedding reception in the “N-Room” at Hubbard Hall. The encounter was a bit awkward, because he assumed I was coming to ask him for his car so that I could pick up Shepherd in style at the Key Bridge Marriott. I left his office with the keys to the N-Room and the keys to Jack’s car, so I picked up Shepherd (in style) and drove him to the Naval Academy, where he was going to do a signing for his book "Moon Shot."

We had a great conversation, but one thing I wished I had asked him: “So, what comes next after walking on the moon?” How about you? When you achieved something big in your life (like starting your business), did you say, “I’ve arrived!” or did you say, “What’s next?”

One local entrepreneur who keeps asking “What’s next?” is Dr. Jay Greenstein, CEO of the seven-location Sport and Spine Rehab. After having some decent success his first eight years in the business, he became frustrated by the increasing complexity that occurs with any business growth. Jay knew he was a great chiropractor, but he wanted to be a better entrepreneur.

Determined to change things, 10 years ago he signed up for the Wharton Small Business Development Program, which — combined with some insights that he got from reading Jack Welsh’s book "Jack" – inspired Jay to take three bold steps that transformed his business:

1) Implementing Six Sigma. Although Six Sigma is used by many of the largest companies in the world (GE, Raytheon, etc.), Jay was sold on the idea and signed up for training. He used the process to overhaul his billing, which resulted in roughly a 30% increase in revenue. His firm now has its first Six Sigma Black Belt. If you are a small business owner – or a manager in a small business – have you ever considered using Six Sigma? Please take two seconds to answer that question in my informal, and anonymous, poll.

2) Rethinking the enterprise. The Six Sigma experience transformed how Jay looks at his practice. Rather than looking at his business as a service provider, Jay and his staff look at Sport and Spine Rehab as a manufacturing firm: a manufacturer of health care outcomes and insurance claims. This subtle mindset shift has enabled him and his staff to discover process improvement breakthroughs that would otherwise not be obvious.

3) Implementing transformational technology. Five years ago, Jay decided to make a big investment in SuccessFactors . The results were felt almost immediately; among the many subjective advantages, revenue per employee increased 7 percent within one year of implementation, even when headcount increased over 25 percent. A few years later, Jay decided to engage the online reputation management company DemandForce to transform his marketing and operations. Besides saving his clinics thousands of staff hours a year in the appointment confirmation process, the number of new patients resulting from web searches increased by 1000 percent!

What’s the bottom line? Sport and Spine Rehab is ranked in the Inc 5000 for fastest growing, privately held companies in the U.S. The enterprise has 60 employees and, during the economic downturn of the last three years, his company sales grew 14 percent annually and his staff grew by about 10 percent.
There are plenty of notes from my talk with Jay that I just couldn’t make fit above, so if you would like to learn more from him, stop by to hear his talk at the National Capital Region Entrepreneur’s Forum luncheon on Jan. 23.

Achieving the important : A lesson from Army-Navy football

2012-01-10T23:27:00.001-05:00

Read the original post at the Washington Business Journal

As an Annapolis graduate, a Navy Football letter winner and a coach in the Navy Football system for three years, you can imagine that I am quite thrilled that Navy beat Army in football for the 10th straight year. Navy fans couldn’t be happier; Army fans, on the other hand, probably feel more like this.

If I were to give West Point advice, I would simply ask the leadership how important it is to them to beat Navy in sports. If it’s not that important (I am not advocating that it should be), they’re likely to keep losing to Navy. Why? Because Navy’s sports programs are ultimately all about beating Army. When we sing our alma mater, we end by shouting “Beat Army!” Most of our fight songs obsess in one way or another about beating West Point. In order for Army to turn around its program and begin beating Navy consistently (like they used to), they’ll need a year-round focus on beating Navy. That cannot mean that they forsake all their other training, but it does mean that the coaches and players will need to be focused for at least a few minutes every day on beating Navy.

Achieving something very important to you and your business requires:

1. Getting crystal clear about what you want to achieve with your business. I’m not talking about generalities (increase profit margin to 16 percent, increase revenue to $10 million, etc.). I’m talking about something you can really be passionate about that will naturally and easily focus your efforts.

2. Documenting your strategy and breaking it down to the level of detail necessary to drive execution. DON’T BLOW THIS OFF -- keeping it in your head never works. Big achievements require plans with milestones and metrics. These will not only allow you to monitor the performance of your team against the strategy, but they’ll also help you invest growth capital efficiently.

3. Getting buy-in from your team. If the goal is important enough to you, replace those who won’t support you with people who will.

4. Realizing that hope is not a strategy. Hoping that a number of good things will happen is not good enough to accomplish something great. You must have a plan designed specifically to help you achieve your goal.

5. Acting like a honey badger (note – some adult language on the video) when it comes to your goal and never giving up. Being passionate and relentless. If it’s that important to you, how could you possibly quit?

What are your thoughts about achieving big goals? Anything that we can add to the list?

Should your business have a board of advisers?

2011-11-29T18:56:00.001-05:00

Read the original post at the Washington Business Journal.

If you were to ask me, I’d say a successful business has at least the following characteristics:

1) Scalable – growing AND is capable of handling greater growth
2) Sustainable – continues to grow and be profitable if the owner/CEO takes a two to four week vacation, if a key person leaves the company, or if the most important customer is lost.
3) Valuable – the sustainability and growth of future free cash flows are reasonably predictable.

Those successful businesses almost always have one or more of the following things in place:

1) A strong board of directors
2) A strong board of advisers,and/ or
3) Participation in a disciplined accountability process (e.g. peer group, business coach, etc.)

Which, if any, do you use? Please take 5 seconds to let me know at my informal poll.

When I sat down with Information Expert’s Marissa Levin a few weeks ago, she walked through the 18-month long process she went through to build her board of advisers. It was worth the effort. Information Expert’s compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was in the mid-20s before the board was implemented and is on target to increase that growth rate by almost a third. Moreover, Marissa has discovered that the board has improved her employee retention as well as recruiting.

That experience helped her formulate her SCALE model, a process she uses in her new venture – Successful Culture – to help clients build their boards:

Select. Considerable thought should go into deciding who you will invite to join your board. Besides opening up new business opportunities, these men and women should have the relevant experience to help you design the organization and the culture to which you aspire. Anyone you invite should have the flexibility to attend meetings and be well recommended by others. Finally, go with your gut. If you don’t think you can work together, don’t do it.

Compensate. Don’t give board members an equity stake in your business. Instead, pay your board members cash. The amount varies based on a number of factors -- and should be closely-held information – but a rough order of magnitude is $500-$5000 per meeting.

Assimilate. An effective board is about the FIRM, not the CEO. Integrate board members into the company so that your employees get access to their skills, their leadership, their industry knowledge, etc. Invite your board members to internal meetings and ask them to serve as mentors to your employees. Properly assimilated, an effective board will also help recruit and retain employees.

Leverage. A well-constructed board will be a huge help with your business development. However, this does not mean that you should exploit your board; in other words, don’t use the fact that someone is serving on your board as a marketing tool (name dropping). It protects the interests of your board members by keeping their engagement with your firm confidential.

Evaluate. Continually evaluate your board members. You need to keep the group small enough to be effective (max of 6), but changing operational and strategic goals will necessitate the need to make changes in the makeup of your board. Making sure that the people you invite are aware of the temporary nature of their service will keep all future break-ups amicable.

The above just scratched the surface. However, Marissa will be speaking Dec. 5 at the National Capital Region Entrepreneur’s Forum. Stop by and take down your own notes from her talk!

Leadership lesson from the Penn State scandal

2011-11-16T18:14:00.001-05:00

Read the original posting at The Washington Business Journal.

Most of us who are sports fans were shocked by the recent events at Penn State University . Besides the alleged crimes (which I will not discuss in this post) there were some other allegations in the press that seemed to indicate that a number of leaders at Penn State – including former head football coach Joe Paterno — might not have taken all the actions they should have taken. Regardless of the merits of those allegations, it’s worth us stepping back and taking a moment to think about one of the most important requirements for a leader: integrity

When your integrity is tested, by definition the situation is not pleasant (otherwise there would be no test, right?). You can do too little, which may have happened in the Penn State case. Even if the incident was reported promptly, the years of delay would suggest that there was inadequate follow up.
At the other extreme, you can overreact. My junior year at the Naval Academy, two of my fellow offensive linemen, both seniors and starters, watched the final Army-Navy Football game of their careers from the sidelines with tears in their eyes. They were on the sidelines because someone reported that they had violated the Naval Academy’s Honor Concept, charges that wound up being incorrect.

Leadership erred on the side of assuming guilt in this case – a wrong decision that took something from my friends that can never be returned.

So, how can the rest of us possibly keep our integrity intact when even our greatest leaders fail? Some of the wisdom that has been handed down to me over the years is:

Remember that loyalty is earned. If someone tests your loyalty by testing your integrity, your integrity MUST win. NO EXCEPTIONS, EVER. A person (or a university) that expects you to violate your integrity for his (or its) protection does not deserve your loyalty.

If it’s in your power to stop bad things from happening, you must take action to stop them. For whatever reason, it took nine years after the alleged 2002 incident was reported before Sandusky was indicted. Whatever actions were taken were probably not strong enough. At Enron , there were opportunities to prevent CFO Andrew Fastow from filing false financial information, but no one took action until it was too late.

A person is innocent until proven guilty. In the Naval Academy incident I mentioned above, the decision to discipline was made before all the facts were in. Take action to keep bad things from happening, but don’t apply the discipline until you have all the information that is available. The cost of convicting an innocent person can be greater than the cost of letting a guilty person go free.

Be accountable to someone. Leaders need someone to whom they can be accountable, ideally a person who isn’t a “stakeholder” in their lives (e.g. family member, boss, investor, etc.). This can be a friend, a mentor, a coach, a peer group, etc. An accountability partner of some sort can help you get clarity about situations where your judgment is clouded.

Don’t ever betray someone’s trust, and don’t lie, cheat, or steal. This rule is obvious, but our jails and divorce courts are full of people who felt that this rule didn’t apply to them.

What are your thoughts or suggestions regarding maintaining your integrity as a leader?

Growing your business – Renaissance style

2011-10-14T14:32:00.001-04:00

Read my original post at the Washington Business Journal.

One of things my family loves about living where we do is that the Maryland Renaissance Festival is walking distance from us, so we usually go over there a couple times a season to catch a show, eat a turkey leg and see some interesting people! With the massive number of cars parked there on any nice weekend indicating the success of his operation, I decided to ask Jules Smith - the president and general manager – what he did to make the festival so popular.

Of the roughly 25 Renaissance Festivals nationwide that operate for six or more weekends – and have a constructed village – the Maryland Festival consistently places in the top three in attendance (Texas and Minnesota round out the top three). Four times in the last seven seasons the Maryland Festival finished first. Their best year ever was 2007 – their 31st season – when they had 323,000 visitors. When I asked Jules how he did it, he quickly laid out for me the simple ideas that transformed his company’s financial and operational performance:

1. No “passing the hat” after performances. “Passing the hat” is standard operating procedure for most renaissance festivals, but Jules just didn’t like it. So, in 1987, Jules began offering a contract to performers with a guaranteed payment that is much higher than what other festivals offer performers. In return, the performers agree not to solicit donations from the guests after their show is over. Exit surveys indicated that customers LOVED the new policy.

2. Family Friendly Admissions Fee. Also in 1987, Jules modified the admissions fee to make it more family friendly: ages 6 and under are free, ages 7-15 pay a children’s rate, and 16 and over pay the adult fee. This policy, combined with the elimination of “passing the hat,” enabled attendance to skyrocket. Attendance was consistently around 90,000 before the policy changes; afterwards, attendance increased about 12 percent annually.

3. Partners in Profit program. Jules’ company runs nine of the 20 food stands at the festival, and managing them effectively was a struggle. Food quality and service was mediocre, which kept sales low. At first he tried providing incentives to everyone who worked at his food stands, but that didn’t work. So, in 1995, he decided to provide entrepreneurial incentives to each stand manager. A manager gets a labor budget and a food waste budget, and then it’s up to him or her to drive sales, keep quality high, and control costs. At the end of the season, he or she earns 8 percent of the net proceeds of the stand. After this policy was implemented, quality and service improved demonstrably, and sales responded by increasing a whopping 30 percent.

The record attendance numbers and food sales has allowed Jules to keep his admission fees the lowest of all the Renaissance Festivals. That’s even more remarkable given the fact that he pays his performers much more than other festivals. So, by focusing on pleasing his customers (food quality, better performance atmosphere, attractive pricing), Jules has taken the Maryland Renaissance Festival to the top.

What are the takeaways for your business? How about sharing them as comment below, and how about stopping by the Maryland Renaissance Festival over the next two weekends and enjoy yourself!

Entrepreneurial wisdom from Lore Systems’ Tien Wong

2011-10-05T11:39:00.000-04:00

Read the original post at The Washington Business Journal.

If you are active in the entrepreneurial or venture capital communities here in D.C., you have undoubtedly heard of Tien Wong, currently the chairman and CEO of Lore Systems. If you haven’t heard of Tien, here’s a brief summary:

— In 1991, he co-founded and served as CEO of CyberRep, Inc. and grew it to 2300 employees and $80M in revenue before it was acquired in 2003.

— He was the recipient of the 2001 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for Greater Washington

— He serves or has served on boards of organizations such as the Association for Corporate Growth – National Capital, the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business (the best business school in the world – at least in my opinion!), and the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, to name a few.

I invited Tien to speak at the National Capital Region Entrepreneurs Club September luncheon and in case you didn’t feel like showing up, here are some of the things he shared with us:

1) Tien hires people with passion, integrity, energy, and the ability to execute. As an investor, he looks for those same characteristics in CEOs. He shared with us that he liked hiring people with restaurant experience because they work hard and they understand customer service.

2) You need to be ready to pivot and change your plans in order to handle opportunities that come your way. This ability to pivot enabled CyberRep to turn small deals into big deals with Pepco and Cable & Wireless.

3) CyberRep was very attractive to acquirers because they had lots of long-term contracts (generally, the more predictable the future cash flows, the greater the value of the company). This wasn’t easy, but because the company had a reputation for providing the best service in the industry, CyberRep was able to insist on the long-term deals.

4) Over-reliance on one, large client can sink your business. At one point, a large company was responsible for over 50% of CyberRep’s business. Tien personally had to work hard to mitigate their risk.

5) Build and implement good processes. The processes they used at $8M were the ones they used at $80M.

Some final takeaways:

1) Do the right thing always. It can be expensive, and it takes courage, but it’s the reason behind Tien’s success.

2) Build relationships.

3) Never, ever give up. CyberRep lost their largest client twice and almost went out of business twice.

4) Think BIG. You hear this a lot, but do you really understand what it means? Make no small plans.

5) Be consistent with your great actions. Ultra-successful people are consistently great.

What are your thoughts? How about sharing them as a comment below?

Lead your business like a SEAL Team - Part 2

2011-09-28T22:16:00.000-04:00

My last piece about Navy SEAL training and business received so many great comments from people with special operations experience that I decided to modify my plan a little and share these with you. Below are some great items to amplify the list of SEAL leadership wisdom that I wrote about in the first post (Teamwork is paramount, Training, Innovation, and Failure is an option). I am only planning on adding “Focus on mission” to my original list, but we’ll see how things go after I get comments back

Absolute focus on mission. This goes without saying...

Read the rest....

Earn This!

2011-09-14T00:09:00.000-04:00

I had the great privilege of attending a September 11 10th Anniversary remembrance ceremony at the US Naval Academy’s storied Memorial Hall. It was a solemn occasion; quite a few alumni – including a neighbor of mine – were lost in the attacks. The majority were lost in our campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. As I looked around the room at the photos of our fallen comrades, I thought about the friends that I’ll never see again: Bill “Salty” Watkins, Tony Domino, and Scott Zellum.

One of the speakers, 1st Lt Andrew Kinard, USMC(Ret.), US Naval Academy Class of 2005, relayed a powerful story to us. He arrived in Iraq on September 11^th, 2006 – a little over a year after he graduated – and two months later he was critically injured by a roadside Improvised Explosive Device, or IED. Andrew was evacuated to the US, and during a layover in Germany, an 18-year old Marine noticed that something was wrong with Andrew. The clamp on his femoral artery had come loose, and if the Marine didn’t act quickly to put pressure on the wound and commence CPR, Andrew would have died. The Marine’s quick thinking saved Andrew’s life, but it couldn’t stop Andrew from losing his legs.

Since he was in a coma when all this happened, Andrew was not able to thank the Marine personally until they met each other again this past summer. Andrew asked the Marine why he saved him, and the Marine answered just the way that you would expect a Marine to respond: he was just doing his job. However, the Marine also said that he had been following-up on Andrew, and that he couldn’t be more proud of what Andrew had accomplished over the last few years.

This is what our military, fire fighters, police officers, etc. want us to do with their sacrifice – they want us to make the most of it. After telling us that story, Andrew asked us to take a look at the pictures of those who gave their lives since 9/11, and he exhorted us to live lives that would make our fallen soldiers, sailors, and airmen proud. They paid the ultimate price so that we can make the most of our lives; so that we can live lives of value and meaning We owe it to them to make the most of their sacrifice. As Capt Miller (played by Tom Hanks) says to Private Ryan (played by Matt Damon) at the end of the movie Saving Private Ryan: “Earn this!” Don’t wait to earn the sacrifice of those who volunteer to go in harm’s way on your behalf. We owe it to them to make our lives remarkable.

Leading your business like a SEAL team — Part 1

2011-08-23T09:59:00.000-04:00

Shortly after the news broke that the U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama Bin Laden, an idea struck me while I was out for a run. I was wearing the shirt that honors one of my Naval Academy roommates — the late John Kainer — and it occurred to me that many business leaders would benefit greatly from learning why the SEALs are so good at what they do.

So, I started calling around to my friends and classmates who are — or were — SEALs, and I got a great deal of interest to help me put the article together.

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Business wisdom from MDB Communications' Cary Hatch

2011-08-04T00:05:00.000-04:00

Several months ago, I met Cary Hatch, CEO of MDB Communications, in the green room of Executive Leaders Radio. Her story impressed me so much that I asked her if she would be willing to speak at the National Capital Region Entrepreneurs Club, and she graciously accepted (She calls talking to groups like ours her "therapy.").

A few takeaways I got from her interview on ELR and her talk at the Entrepreneur's Club:

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Does small business with best technology really rule?

2011-07-11T21:48:00.000-04:00

You may have caught one of the latest set of Verizon Wireless commercials that claim “The small business with the best technology rules.” Personally, I love the ad with Susie, but I have a BIG issue with the tagline. Sure – great technology that is ALSO well implemented can be a great competitive advantage. However, Verizon’s tagline is definitely wrong. The small (or large, or mid-size) business with the best LEADERSHIP rules every day of the week and twice on Sunday. In fact, the business with the best leadership and the worst technology is going to run circles around Susie and all her cool technology.

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Make sure all your business eggs aren't in one basket

2011-07-11T21:45:00.000-04:00

Those of us who live in the D.C. area were not surprised by the news that came out recently about the Senate Armed Services Committee making some big modifications to two large Lockheed Martin programs. In my 10 years as a defense contractor, I saw this happen all the time. One company I worked for even moved to a larger office in Rosslyn because of the huge influx of employees we had, only to see the program eliminated because new leadership in the directorate decided...
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Lessons in delegation from the silent service

2011-07-11T21:42:00.000-04:00

Probably one of the best leadership skills I learned as a nuclear submarine officer in the US Navy was delegation. Would you believe that on a nuclear submarine, the captain is involved in very little of the day-to-day activities? I know movies make it seem like the captain does everything, but that’s not the case. Even though he is 100 percent accountable for the ship – including the crew, the nuclear reactor and the nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles if it’s a boomer – he doesn’t work 24x7x365. Given the fact that when a submarine screws up, people can die, international incidents can be created, or the captain can get fired, you would think that the captain would never delegate anything but the simplest tasks.

So how does the captain of a nuclear submarine successfully delegate so much of the day-to-day operation of the ship?

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Chalk Talk: Yes, I bought Lady Gaga’s 'Born This Way

2011-06-23T12:41:00.000-04:00

Last week there was a little brouhaha over at Amazon.com related to their promotion of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” album. On May 23, Amazon offered a digital copy of the album for 99 cents (it wholesales for about $9 – Amazon might have paid $7), which led to a massive crush of customers at the Internet retailer’s website.

The traffic caused delays for some customers and drove some other customers away. OK, don’t tell anyone, but when I heard about the problems Amazon was having, I decided to head over there (when they repeated the deal) and see if the problem was still there. Everything worked smoothly, I plunked down the 99 cents, and I now have my Lady Gaga music (which I haven’t listened to yet).

Besides giving you a false impression of my musical preferences, there are three great takeaways for us as business leaders:

Read the rest at the Washington Business Journal.

Chalk Talk: No exit for you, Superman

2011-05-26T22:59:00.000-04:00

Over the past few weeks, I was a judge for a couple of business plan competitions. One was the Business Professionals of America’s National Leadership Conference and the other was the Community Business Partnership’s 2011 Business Plan competition. I saw many great business ideas, but I also saw the same problem in every single plan except one: the company will be run by Superman and the owner will never die.

1. Superman. This is the owner who will do everything. Generically speaking, he works for practically nothing and can perform great feats of strength. He can...

Read more: No exit for you, Superman | Washington Business Journal

Chalk Talk: Top 3 business growth roadblocks

2011-05-18T21:36:00.001-04:00

Well, after blogging about business news items for years, it’s great to finally blog on an article where I was one of the featured “experts” ( I use that term loosely, of course!). The writer, Anne Field, called me a few weeks ago to ask me about common roadblocks that prevent businesses from taking their businesses to the next level. The list can be pretty long, so we limited it to a top 3 so that she could get the article in under her word limit.
Here are the top three business growth suppressors, in my opinion:

Chalk Talk: Entrepreneurship in the core curriculum?

2011-05-18T21:34:00.000-04:00

If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ll enjoy this article by Dilbert cartoon creator Scott Adams: “How to Get a Real Education.” His idea about educating “B” students in entrepreneurship was interesting to me, because I have long felt that we should be teaching our young people much more about the bedrock of the American economic system: free enterprise.
A class on entrepreneurship as part of a college’s core curriculum, not limited to B students, might not be a bad idea.

Chalk Talk: How do you keep a client like UnderArmour?

2011-04-12T21:36:00.000-04:00

I’ve written before that your first priority in marketing is to hold on to your existing customers. Small businesses often satisfy this requirement through exceptional customer service, but many larger companies do it by sorting their customers into tiers (e.g. Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, etc.). The problem with very large companies is that if you fall into one of the lower tiers, you might not be pleased with your experience. For example, United Airlines’ customer service problems were made legendary by Dave Carroll in his “United Breaks Guitars” videos.

I don’t mean to pick on large companies. On the contrary, the large company practice of having tiers of customer support is critical for growing, thriving businesses...

Read more: How do you keep a client like UnderArmour? | Washington Business Journal

Chalk Talk: Managing high-tech R&D

2011-04-12T21:25:00.000-04:00

Over the last few months, I wrote about the competition between Facebook and Google and another battle in that competition was announced when Google announced its new +1 social product. Although I know nothing about the internal workings of Google, this announcement got me thinking about what Google’s research and development process might be.

I’m no Google, but here are my own insights in managing tech R&D, most recently as a contractor for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA):...

GrowStrong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Wisdom from Starbucks' Howard Schultz

2011-04-12T19:01:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite leadership development practices is to listen to interviews of successful leaders, so naturally I jumped at the opportunity to listen to Starbucks Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz speak at the Capital Hilton. The Greater Washington Board of Trade’s Jim Dineger asked Schultz questions based on his new book – "Onward" – and he also asked him some excellent questions submitted by the audience. Some important points I got were:

GrowStrong!

Coach Grev

Ask the Coach!

2011-04-01T11:49:00.002-04:00

Do you have a business question that you would like to bounce off of an objective coach, or would you like to suggest a topic for our Washington Business Journal blog? Just post your comment or suggestion here!

Chalk Talk: Is your vision statement for real?

2011-04-01T11:46:00.000-04:00

I was sitting in a briefing a few days ago at a Department of Defense facility, and one of the surprising things we were told is that “safety is our first priority.” Really? Obviously that can’t be true in the DOD (“Yes, we lost to the enemy, but look how safe we were!”).

The DOD’s first priority must to successfully defend protected assets and win wars. Whereas certainly safety was of critical importance to us on our submarine, I’m pretty sure the Navy didn’t want us to turn tail and run during a war because incoming enemy torpedoes would adversely affect our safety. The nation’s highest military honor, the Medal of Honor, is not awarded for being the safest person in the military – it’s usually awarded to someone who acts in a decidedly unsafe manner.

You can see this same problem in vision statements...

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Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Is customer experience your competitive advantage?

2011-03-08T20:53:00.000-05:00

In general, there are three ways a company can compete: price, product/service and customer experience. Competing on price can be tough on the bottom line, but for companies that do it well (WalMart), it can lead to great financial success. Competing on the quality of our product and service is necessary, but it can be difficult for us to educate the marketplace on why ours is superior (e.g. financial services). The customer experience, however, is something that we can make uniquely ours. Think about how often you chose to do business – or not do business – with a vendor because of your experience with that company. Personally, customer experience is the reason why I exclusively fly Southwest Airlines.

How does a company deliver excellent, sustainable customer experience…?

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GrowStrong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Innovation in a 1,000-year-old business?

2011-02-15T19:28:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, my family and I drove by a now-closed butcher shop where we would often go to get meat and cheese for special occasions. My wife commented on the demise of the store and she wondered whether a butcher shop could ever be successful outside of a supermarket. My answer was an emphatic “YES!” Ultimately, the problem is that being an excellent butcher does not in itself qualify someone to run a butcher shop. The same is true for any business: Technical knowledge alone (being a successful lawyer, doctor, plumber, graphic designer, engineer, etc.) is not enough to run a business...

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Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Note to business leaders - Foster dissent

2011-02-06T16:31:00.000-05:00

In the days since my last blog update, my Naval Academy classmates have continued to discuss various leadership points inspired by the Capt. Owen Honors incident. One of the most interesting discussions was around the idea of fostering dissent.

In an article that I think should be required reading for any business leader, “Why Our Best Officers Are Leaving," the author provides some enlightening research results, as well as a few interesting proposals. Although there are many great takeaways, here are a few that jumped out at me:

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: It’s not about you when it comes to your business

2011-01-28T15:18:00.000-05:00

On Jan. 17, Apple Inc. reported that CEO Steve Jobs will be taking an unexpected medical leave, a press release which led to Apple’s stock closing down 3 percent the following trading day. This is a big problem; no company beyond the start-up phase should be so dependent on its CEO that its future is uncertain when the CEO leaves. At around $65 billion in revenue and a market capitalization of $311 billion, Apple clearly is a successful enterprise. However, the shockwaves caused by last week’s announcement left me wondering…

Read more…

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Remember - Rank has its responsibilities

2011-01-28T15:14:00.000-05:00

After the news broke about the Commanding Officer of the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) being relieved of command, I forwarded the story to my Naval Academy class listserv asking for comment about it. One of the important points brought out by my classmates — many of whom are currently in command of ships and facilities around the world — was that even if Captain Honors was achieving or exceeding all of his performance metrics, you simply can’t have a senior officer of a ship acting this way. This is not an issue of political correctness run amok: A leader should treat all his/her subordinates with respect. To paraphrase some of the points:

Read more…

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Maximizing results in 2011

2011-01-05T16:05:00.001-05:00

As we begin a new year, many of us take time to consider what we accomplished over the last year and what things we would like to change. This year will be the year that we will finally lose weight, get healthier, get in better shape, get organized, or improve our businesses. Many of us, however, have discovered that New Year’s resolutions – like many goals – rarely get accomplished. Therefore, given the time of year, I thought it would be a good time for me to take a break from analysis and share a couple of the things that I’ve learned about goals:

Read more: Maximizing results in 2011 | Washington Business Journal

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Marketing, innovation … and training?

2010-12-10T09:48:00.002-05:00

Each of us in a business leadership role understands the importance of investing in marketing and innovation, but how do we feel about training? Too often, companies hire sales or business development staff and put them through trial by fire — the new employees will either rise to the occasion and make their numbers or they will crash and burn. Companies will also often promote someone into a leadership role who has never had a single course on leadership, simply because he was the best at his job — or the most senior — but then he fails to perform adequately in the new role.

In Tom Heath's article about Force 3 Founder and CEO Rocky Cintron's emphasis on training stands out. To me, it appears that he sees training as a critical investment — not a cost.

Some great points that jumped out at me from the article:

Read More...

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Winner of the 2010 Army-Navy Football Ticket Giveaway Announced

2010-11-30T04:48:00.000-05:00

Want to know whether or not you won? Go to our contest website to find out! Good luck! If you win, you need to contact me no later than 5PM EST on Wednesday, December 1!

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Will Facebook sink Google?

2010-11-26T12:26:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I wrote about Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s interview with The Wall Street Journal, where he stated that he didn’t see Facebook as a competitor to Google (see “Don’t Hit Anything You Can’t See”). My observation was that Schmidt was either being naïve or coy about his firm’s strategy (I believe the latter). On Nov. 15, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch of a new messaging service, which will provide users with an "@facebook.com" email address and will integrate a user’s email, Facebook messaging, instant messaging, and SMS text.

I agree with Zuckerberg that this won’t kill Gmail, Yahoo Mail, etc...

GrowStrong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Avoid the seven business potholes

2010-11-26T12:21:00.000-05:00

I listened to local businessman Ken Kessler share some lessons from his entrepreneurial journey at a luncheon a few days ago. Ken founded and later sold a company named Kessler Soils Engineering Products Inc.

A big part of their worldwide business is evaluating the condition of the soil upon which someone’s planning to build a road or a runway. If you don’t have a good handle on how the foundation is going to handle the weight of the trucks, airplanes, etc., that will be on the top of the asphalt, you won’t know what hidden surprises will eventually show up on the surface (potholes and sinkholes are two of the big ones). When giving talks on business leadership, he extends the soil analysis to running a business: “what you have underneath will eventually show up on the surface.”

Ken listed seven potholes for which entrepreneurs need to be on the lookout (I’ve taken some liberties to keep this posting short)…

GrowStrong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Don’t get trapped by your business

2010-11-26T12:16:00.000-05:00

This article from The Wall Street Journal brought to mind the issue that every business owner needs to plan for: exiting the business.

Author Steven Covey popularized the concept of beginning “with the end in mind” in his book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", and it’s a concept that most business owners don’t put into practice.

How do you know if your business is designed to be sold? As a business owner, you should be able to leave your business for one-to-two months and come back to find your business operating profitably and smoothly. That is a no-kidding indicator that the business is system/process-centric and not owner-centric. What that means to a potential acquirer is:

GrowStrong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Marketing priority No. 1: Hold on to your customers

2010-11-03T19:41:00.000-04:00

I was out buying a bike for my son’s birthday over the weekend, and I was planning on going to the same store where I bought all the bikes in our family: Bike Doctor of Crofton. The shop is one of eight independently owned Bike Doctor franchises throughout Maryland. (The headquarters is in Arnold.) One of the incentives the shop offers is a “trade-up” program on children’s bikes that you buy from them. As children grow out of their bikes, you can trade-up and get money towards bigger bikes.

On my way to Crofton, though, I decided to check out a bike shop a little closer to my house in Annapolis. I asked the owner if he offers a similar incentive as Crofton Bike Doctor. He told me no and gave me reasons why (liability, warranty, squirrels, blah, blah…), so I walked out the door and headed to Crofton.

Later, while I was buying my son’s bike at Crofton Bike Doctor...

Read more: Marketing priority No. 1: Hold on to your customers | Washington Business Journal

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Business wisdom from Ted Leonsis

2010-11-03T19:39:00.000-04:00

I have an affinity for listening to the “how I did it” stories of leaders. It’s one of the reasons I volunteer with the local chapter of The Entrepreneurs Club of America. Rather than just getting a pedagogical list of "how-to’s" (who wants to be preached to?), a story allows us to take away the things we need for our own businesses by applying our own context.

I recently re-listened to Ted Leonsis’ 2008 interview on Leaders Portfolio. Leonsis is a genuinely successful entrepreneur: At 24, he started his first company — raising $1 million of venture capital — and then sold it two years later for $60 million...

Read more: Business wisdom from Ted Leonsis | Washington Business Journal

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Don’t hit anything you can’t see

2010-10-12T09:04:00.000-04:00

My blog updates have officially moved to the Washington Business Journal, so for the time being, my updates will be posted over on there! Just click on the link below!

Don’t hit anything you can’t see - Washington Business Journal

ChalkTalk: What’s in a name? Ask Big Ass Fans

2010-09-02T20:04:00.001-04:00

August 29th’s Wall Street Journal carried this interesting article about business names: “What's in a Name? Potential Pitfalls.” . Even if your business is beyond the start-up phase, the possibility of changing the name of your business is always there. Kentucky Fried Chicken rebranded as KFC. Phillip Morris changed its name to Altria. Amway North America changed its name into 3 names: Alticor, the parent company, Quixtar, the direct selling company, and Access Business Group, the manufacturing company. Now the Quixtar name has been retired and Amway is back again. So, reviewing ins-and-outs of business naming periodically is a worthwhile exercise.

The one point I’d like to emphasize in this article is “Be Specific.” Whenever I write about or talk about marketing, I usually bring up the key elements of killer ideas, products, or services. One of those key elements is a cost effective way to communicate the value. In my opinion, a specific and memorable name is one of the easiest ways to communicate your value to the marketplace. That’s why I never understood the reason behind the fruity names (Apple, BlackBerry) or the arbitrary names (Lucent, Qwest). I’m not sure how many years Research in Motion delayed the capturing of mindshare by calling their smart phone “BlackBerry” instead of, oh, the Mobile Brain, or something like that. The point is that names can be extraordinarily effective at communicating value, and the impact of a well designed name that actually communicates value should not be taken lightly.

One of the best examples I like to bring up is the company Big Ass Fans. What product do you think Big Ass Fans sells? What would you think is a unique feature of the product that Big Ass Fans sells? Take a moment to consider the simple elegance of that name: you know what they make (fans), and – by virtue of the descriptor they use – you can figure out that they are probably bigger than most fans on the market. Let’s take it one step further – do you feel that you will have problems remembering that name? They also wrap it all up with an effective logo – a jackass.

So, with their name, they have:

Communicated what they build,
Communicated their unique value, and
Provided a means for you to easily remember their name.

What’s my take away from this article? Be specific when creating a name. Yeah, I know there’s a fad out there to come up with cool, unrelated names, but how about focusing instead on effectively communicating what it is that you do?

What are your thoughts?

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk:Confessions of an Entrepreneur Video with Merritt Green

2010-07-24T16:39:00.001-04:00

If you have 40 minutes or so to spare, listen to Merritt Green, Founder and Managing Partner of General Counsel, PC, speak to the May Luncheon of the National Capital Region Entrepreneurs Club. Lots of great lessons, and definitely worth watching if you are an entrepreneur or are thinking about starting your own business.

YouTube limits the size of the videos you can post, so here are all 5 volumes: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, Volume 5.

Enjoy!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Emphasize Customer Experience

2010-06-23T19:35:00.000-04:00

I just read Tom Heath’s story from June 21^st‘s Washington Post: “Customer service is battleground” Although he does hit on customer service for the first few paragraphs, ultimately this is a great story about how two entrepreneurs built a successful enterprise. The 2 brothers, Tom and John Hughes, were also an appropriate subject for the first day of summer: they own six Haagen-Dazs ice cream shops.

I commend this article not just because of the “how-they-did-it” story, but also for the introductory paragraphs about customer service. The Hughes’ brothers explain that customer service “is the battleground where they win or lose customers in the highly competitive dessert market.” Although customer service is always important, the brothers’ wisdom is especially important in any industry where a number of competitors – including substitutes – can risk turning your business into the purveyor of a commodity.

In business, we can compete essentially in 3 areas: price, our product/service, and the customer’s experience. Competing in price is devastating for most businesses without the scale to compete with the big boys. A local merchant will get destroyed by Walmart on price; the telecom company I worked for in the early part of this century was eaten alive by the large phone companies. Even if your competition is just other small businesses, price competition will eat your margins, and without margin you can’t invest in your business or stay alive when the inevitable market downturn comes.

So, if price isn’t such a good way to compete, how about the quality of your product or service? Absolutely. Although I’m sure Haagen-Dazs fans will say there’s a huge difference, but is there really a big difference in the quality of Haagen-Dazs, Ben and Jerry’s, or my favorite – Coldstone Creamery? Companies that want to stay alive will continue to invest in maintaining and improving their quality, so you will need to keep doing this investment for as long as you intend on staying in business. However, is this investment enough to help you keep your repeat customers and win new ones?

Price is devastating and quality is critical, so where else can you compete? The customer experience. If you look at your own buying habits, or if you ask any of your repeat customers, the reason why we go back, more than any other reason, is our overall experience with the vendor. I buy my suits from Davelle Clothiers in Reston. I can get similar quality for a similar price at any high end store (Nordstrom, Saks, etc.), but even Nordstrom’s legendary customer service cannot compete with the experience I get from the team at Davelle, so I drive the 60 miles from my home in Annapolis to get it. I’m sure you have many examples of this in your own buying.

In Tom’s column, it was clear that Zappos.com does not take this experience for granted. They invest in it – and so should you. You can charge a premium for the experience that your customers get, because it’s the experience that they value. You run a gas station, you say? Make the customer experience at your gas station second to none – so great that customers will drive out of their way to experience it. Run a bank? Make the customer experience so magnificent that people won’t leave even for a better rate. Just make the experience so great that people wouldn’t think about going anywhere else – and charge them appropriately for it.

Don’t know how? Go outside your industry for ideas and make customer experience job number one! Remember, although your people may be your company’s greatest asset, your company’s value is determined by essentially one thing – repeat customers (or predictable future customers).

How do you deliver awesome customer experience?

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Second Life worth a Second Look?

2010-04-28T17:28:00.000-04:00

Although I usually avoid writing stories about social media, this one on WSJ.com – “Entrepreneurs Doing Business by Avatar” – caught my attention because of a discussion I recently had about Second Life in a LinkedIn group. I have heard about SL being an interesting possibility in the B2C market, but I haven’t heard much about B2B. One of the people in the discussion wrote about how she knew of a small business – Museum of Robots – that did both B2B and B2C marketing in that virtual world, with some success, so perhaps there’s something to be said for it.

How do you know whether you should make the Second Life jump? Take a look at your strategic marketing plan (do you have one?). Does Second Life enable access to your market? If so, do you believe it would be worth the investment of time and money to create a presence there? One of the hallmarks of a great marketing plan is to have fun and experiment – as long as you understand your baseline performance, and you have the resources to invest, perhaps Second Life is worth a second look?

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Drop the Long Hours

2010-03-30T01:14:00.002-04:00

Great, straightforward column from Tom Heath in Monday’s Washington Post: “Like all good entrepreneurs, Md. contractor saw an opportunity and ran with it.” The part I liked best was about his license plate. It no longer reads "Long Hrs." That's the real sign of Fab's success -- he no longer works 16 hour days.

Enjoy the inspirational story!

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Owner/CEO = Chief Sales and Marketing Officer

2010-03-04T18:18:00.003-05:00

As I was conducting my quick review of the Wall Street Journal this AM, I noticed this article on the Page B1: “New Northrop CEO Dives Into Tanker Bid Debate.” From a business coaching perspective, why did this catch my attention?

Every time I speak to or work with business owners and CEOs, I stress the fact that as long as they are in a leadership role in their business, they will be selling and marketing – there’s just no way around it. Certainly as your business grows you will go after the biggest of fish and schmooze only your biggest clients, delegating the smaller accounts to your sales/business development professionals, but you should get completely comfortable with the fact that every business is first and foremost in the Sales and Marketing business. It doesn’t matter if you run a $1.8M business or an $18B business – as CEO, if you don’t have selling and marketing at the top of your list of priorities, you will soon be the CEO of a smaller company.

For example, since the mid-70s General Motors was run by CEOs cultivated in the company’s financial and operations organizations. Not one came from the sales and marketing ranks. Is that the cause of GM’s demise? I don’t know; an accountant ran GM from ’58-’67, a time when they achieved record profits. I do know that it wouldn’t have hurt GM if they sold a few more cars. I still remember an Op-Ed that former CEO Rick Wagoner wrote for the Wall Street Journal a few years ago. He presented a number of ideas for turning around GM, including getting some trade-protection and other help from the government. Not once did he mention building cars that excite people and actually marketing them to the world. It seemed to me, and to the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, that Mr. Wagoner was completely oblivious to the fact that he needed to “sell cars.”

So, will it hurt Northrop’s Wes Bush if he helps his company win a $40B contract? It’s a stretch, but I’m guessing the answer to that is “no.”

Never lose focus on sales and marketing. No customers – no business. The best operations are useless if no one is buying.

Grow Strong!
Coach Grev
The Growth Coach

Chalk Talk: Karen Edwards - owner of McPadnet

2010-02-23T11:18:00.007-05:00

As anyone who knows me will tell you, I’m a sucker for “how I did it” stories – there’s little arguing with success. Tom Heath’s "Value Added" column this week in Monday's Washington Post about Karen Edwards, the owner of McPadnet, is a great read for any entrepreneur. I won’t rehash Karen’s sales tips emphasized in the article; instead, I’ll emphasize some of the other great points:

1) Karen carries a business card that says VP of Sales. Hopefully this isn't the only card she carries (I trust that she has one that says CEO as well), but this was a tip I learned from listening to a talk by Kevin Plank, the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Under Armour. When he was doing the sales for his fledgling company, he had a card that simply stated that he was a salesperson. In his case, it gave him negotiating power, because he could always leave the room with a prospect and say, “I’ll have to check with the boss to see if we can do that…” There are other advantages to this, too, which is why I have 2 cards. The danger of this is if Karen doesn't consider herself a CEO. ALL (not some – ALL) of my business owner clients, from $500K to greater than $25M, did not call themselves CEO before they engaged us. The problem is that someone has to be the CEO, and if the owner doesn’t act like a CEO, chances are excellent that he/she is working many hours “doing” and fewer hours “leading.” So, hopefully Karen considers herself the CEO of McPadnet!

2) She understands what many entrepreneurs don’t understand: every business is first and foremost in the Sales and Marketing business. So, yes, she is in the printing business, but did you notice how almost Tom’s entire column focused on sales? Karen’s innate understanding of this principle has brought her business success. There are lots of printers out there; the ones that will be successful are the ones who understand how critical sales and marketing is.

3) She is a REAL networker. Every time that I think that I’m a natural networker I read stories like this that put me to shame. We tell our clients that “revenue is in the relationships.” Maintaining solid relationships and altruistically helping other business people is one of the keys to long-term revenue growth (and probably more fulfilling relationships, too).

Notably absent from the column was what Karen is doing to make her business sustainable and scalable, and therefore worth a fortune when she sells it. In other words, what steps has she taken to create a company of mini-Karens that will do ALL the sales and marketing for McPadnet? Sustainability (operating without a hitch if she is sitting in the hospital with a broken back for 4 weeks) and scalability (grows because the owner does not micromanage sales transactions closed by others) are keys to developing a valuable business.

So, although the column doesn’t tell us what steps Karen is taking to “get out of her business,” perhaps you can use it in your own business as a case study to brainstorm a little. What steps would you suggest Karen take to make her team as successful in sales and marketing as she is, and then how would you suggest that she pull herself out of the day-to-day operations of McPadnet?

Read the column here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/21/AR2010022103863.html

GrowStrong!

Coach Grev

The Growth Coach

Chalk Talk: Business Owner = Control Freak?

2010-01-26T18:39:00.002-05:00

I have little to add to this great, no-nonsense column in the Wall Street Journal: “When Business Owners Are Control Freaks.” As a business coach, I have observed this countless of times, across all industries. Entrepreneurs, regardless of how extensive their leadership experience was before starting their business, almost always become control freaks. I believe this is mostly driven by the concern we owners have for quality control: if someone else does the job, he won’t do it as well as I would, and the customer will not be happy. It's one of the reasons that I have a business coach of my own, even though I am a business coach.

Enjoy the article, and consider taking the action that Robert Smith, owner of Champion Media Worldwide, took (you have to read the article to find out). It netted him $100,000 plus his first vacation in ten years.

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: A day in the life of a VC

2010-01-11T17:44:00.002-05:00

Tom Heath does a nice job of capturing a “day in the life” of VCs in his column, “A peek inside a venture-capital pitch meeting.” He provides readers some insight that reinforces what they might have learned about the industry either in business school or from around their networks. Although he writes that an entrepreneur’s first stop is often to a VC firm, I find that this is usually not the case – at least not for entrepreneurs who are successful at raising money. Usually step one is putting a second mortgage on the house or cashing-in investments. Step two is friends and family. Step three may be an angel investor, and then step 4 – if he/she wasn’t able to bootstrap the business to profitability or is having problems scaling – a VC.

Unless someone is a successful, serial entrepreneur, or he/she has some other “special sauce,” an entrepreneur is well advised to bootstrap the business as long as possible. Eventually VC money may become necessary – usually when capital is needed to scale the business or when the company’s technology needs more work before it can be launched. Seeking VC money down the road not only improves your chances of making your business case, it also may allow you to get a better price for your equity. Moreover, the networks and business discipline that VCs provide are usually very valuable. Once they have skin in the game, VCs have a vested interest in your success. This can be to the detriment of an entrepreneur’s ego, though; a VC might very well push the entrepreneur out of a leadership role and bring in a professional CEO. Although this would ideally make the entrepreneur very rich, it can also be very disheartening.

The bottom line is that there are no free lunches. VCs provide an extremely valuable service to the free-world’s economy, and I’m a big fan of the industry (quite a few of my close friends are VCs). I would suggest, however, that entrepreneurs bootstrap their companies as long as possible before they invest a tremendous amount of their time – and their equity – in raising these funds.

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Dataprise's David Eisner in The Washington Post

2009-12-22T16:48:00.007-05:00

There is a great story in Monday's Washington Post about David Eisner's Dataprise (in Tom Heath’s “Value Added” column). Three things jumped out at me:

David’s entire net worth is wrapped up in his company. I LOVE this! I don’t necessarily advocate it, since there are many things one cannot control – disasters, government intrusion/regulation, one’s own health, etc. – but this is a fundamental characteristic of entrepreneurs that most people don’t understand. When I shifted retirement assets into capital for my company, I saw it as shifting from one asset to another (albeit with a high penalty). Others saw it as monumentally risky. However, if you can’t bet on yourself in your own business, what on earth are you doing in that business???
I was drawn to the
"build lifestyle into the business so I don’t have to sell"
quote. I suppose what David means is that he wants to pull himself out of the day-to-day operation of the business so that he has more lifestyle. At his company’s size, this no longer needs to be an issue, and so David can take steps immediately to pull himself out. Moreover, by pulling himself out of the day-to-day operations, he makes the company far more valuable.
That leads me to the “don't have to sell” part of the quote. My clients always hear me chant the Stephen Covey “start with the end in mind” mantra: designing a business from the get-go so that it can be sold for a premium should be the goal of every entrepreneur. It doesn’t mean that an owner needs to sell, but a company that is designed to sell is scalable (unlimited growth), sustainable (operates without the owner and is not greatly impacted be losing employees or fluctuations in the economy), and valuable (the owner isn’t the “special sauce”, so the business is more attractive in the marketplace).

It’s a great story for any entrepreneur that will give you a good kick-in-the-tail as you plan 2010!

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Ted Leonsis on the 5 Traits of Happy People

2009-12-11T17:22:00.005-05:00

I had the opportunity to hear Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis speak today at the Arlington Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Meeting. Ted’s talk was about the 5 traits of happy people (at least, that’s my paraphrased title), and – if I understood him correctly – that’s the topic of a new book he just completed. Ted prefaced his list by telling us why this is important:

Happy people live longer
Happy people are healthier
Happy people tend to not get divorced
Happy people have better sex lives
Happy people are, well, happy!

Ted’s a very successful man, so naturally I wrote down his list of 5 traits (again, paraphrased):

Happy people:

Are involved in more than 1 community. What this means is that they have multiple interests and multiple groups where they are involved and where they contribute,
Have high levels of personal expression. In other words, they are able to express their feelings, their ideas, etc.,
Have high levels of personal empathy (you see this trait in great leaders),
Talk less about “I” and talk more about the collective “we.”
Have a higher calling in everything they do. They don’t just work for a dollar, they work for a mission. They try to make an impact.

I hope I gave Mr. Leonsis's points justice! At a minimum, it sounds like this would be a good book to pick up when it comes out.

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Learning Leadership Through Sports

2009-11-23T15:47:00.004-05:00

The Washington Post’s Tom Heath’s “Value Added” column this week is about a company with which I partner quite a bit – Bookkeeping Express. As a former college football player and coach (Navy), I agree with the premise that there are great life lessons learned not only on the football field, but in any endeavor where victory comes only through teamwork. Team sports happen to be an excellent opportunity to have multiple chances at winning or losing, but there are others (debate, writing, science competitions, politics, business, etc.). One of the comments on the column asserted that there were probably other skills that CEO Greg Jones learned at Penn State that were “Value Added” other than football, but I would have to disagree with the comment writer that public speaking is what ultimately provided more leadership skill.

Being a good public speaker qualifies someone for being a leader like having a computer qualifies someone to be a writer. Yes, public speaking is a valuable skill, but it is only one component of leadership. If I had to boil down leadership into two words, I would say that leadership is about ACCOUNTABILITY and HUMILITY, and those are the biggest lessons I learned from playing football – especially in college (man, did I learn a great deal about humility). I’d like to focus on accountability, though, since I feel it is the harder of the two lessons. If Greg didn’t do his job as a nose guard, he would have allowed the front side offensive guard to seal off the backside linebacker (for example), taking the backside linebacker out of the play. If I didn’t do my job as the “blindside” offensive tackle, I would have gotten my quarterback killed. There’s no place to hide on the football field – if you don’t do your job, the team will suffer. You can’t blame anyone else for your inability to do your job – you are held accountable for your actions.

Certainly accountability can be learned in many fields of endeavor, and I believe that team-based endeavors are the best. We learned many leadership lessons at the Naval Academy; developing leaders is what the school is all about. However, there’s a reason why every midshipman is required to participate in sports – whether the sport is intramural or intercollegiate – and that’s to learn accountability, humility, and teamwork. Did we learn public speaking? Yes. Did we take leadership courses? Yes. Did we have many opportunities to apply and hone our leadership skills? Absolutely. However, I have come to understand that accountability and humility must be deeply appreciated before they are embraced or learned. Team sports such as football are one of the best ways to teach these lessons.

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Small Businesses and Scalability

2009-11-04T15:18:00.003-05:00

The Wall Street Journal’s “Fast Fixes” feature had a great article today about Stella & Dot’s use of contractors to help manage rapid growth. For most small businesses, scalability (i.e. the ability to handle growth) is a problem because a spike in revenue can wreak havoc in ways that wouldn’t even phase a mid-to-large business. Let’s say you own a $3M business and all of a sudden you land a large client (e.g. the US Government or a Fortune 500 company). The client places an order for $1M of goods or services, which is a spike equivalent to 33% of your revenue. For your larger competitors, this spike might not be anything more than a blip. For you, though, it could have disastrous consequences. Without adequate planning, your quality and delivery will suffer, affecting the relationships with both your new and existing clients.

Loading up capacity before you have the business is a sure recipe for bankruptcy, but at a minimum you should have a plan in place to handle sales spikes. Contractors are an excellent short-term solution. Long term, you’ll need W2 employees to provide sustainability, but identifying a number of contractors who can help you out in a pinch is great advice!

The Wall Street Journal calls this “outside the box” thinking; I disagree. This is Business 101. Jessica Herrin of Stella & Dot wisely applied a sound principle, and she was appropriately rewarded!

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: 3 Best Ways to Win a Corporate Client

2009-10-08T16:03:00.001-04:00

This was a great how-to article that I ran across today in the Wall Street Journal. Very simple ideas, and in some ways obvious, but hopefully it might inspire you to break some of your inertia. Sure, there are downsides to corporate clients (take a long time paying, might be very demanding of your limited resources, your company may become too reliant on 1-2 clients for revenue, etc.), but they do great things for your business in terms of credibility, sustainability, and revenue. Landing corporate and government clients has been part of our own marketing plan for quite some time, and several of these ideas have borne fruit for us. The article lists 3 ideas, but provides an important 4^th idea in the second paragraph – registering on the supplier diversity websites of very large companies and – if your business is minority or women owned – achieving certification through a number of groups.

Enjoy the article and use the ideas!

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Customer Service = Company Value

2009-09-15T11:58:00.006-04:00

Your company’s value comes from your customers, especially your repeat customers. Whereas your employees are your most important ASSET – your business value is solely driven by customers. No customers, no cash flow. If you have few repeat customers, your future cash flows are harder to predict, and therefore the value of your business is reduced. As the Kruglak brothers of Genesis Security Systems said in this Washington Business Journal column, “Keep an unrelenting focus on the company’s customers.”

Customer service is one of the big areas where a small business differentiates from a larger business, so how do small businesses blow it? Micromanaging and the fear of giving bad news.

Fear of Giving Bad News: Your customers are planning on you to deliver, and when you don’t, it can cause many other problems for them. If you tell them the bad news, at least they can plan alternatives. Yes, they may still be disappointed with you, but they will likely be FURIOUS if you promised them that you would meet the deadline and you gave them no opportunity to plan alternatives. Good-bye repeat business, good-bye referrals, hello bad press!

Micromanaging: if you are somehow involved in every transaction in your business, then when things get busy – or you get injured and have to go to the hospital – the flow of information to your customers gets constrained or completely shut down. This is what happened to me this weekend – the owner of a small manufacturer suffered an accident and – since his cell phone is the company’s phone -- all communication with his company stopped.

So, tell your customers the bad news sooner rather than later and implement sustainable business processes in your company so that customer communications occur independently of you. If customers are used to dealing with you, then train them to begin working with your staff. As a bonus, here are some insights from today's Wall Street Journal about how entrepreneurs use Twitter to support customer service.

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: The 10 Stupidest Tech Company Blunders

2009-08-19T18:10:00.004-04:00

Although there aren't any explicit business leadership lessons in this article, I loved it for its rich look-back on technology deals that happened and didn't happen. Some of these are so good it's almost worth changing the names, changing some of the details, and packaging them as case studies for business school students to see how they would respond.

I urge you to not say the words "how stupid could they have been?" I'm sure in most cases, there were competent managers trying to make great decisions. Maybe not in the IBM deal, but even there we don't get enough of the details to make an objective assessment.

Enjoy the article and learn the overall lesson. Technology is a game changer. Most times it doesn't go anywhere (ask any venture capitalist), but sometimes...

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Ask the Coach!

2009-08-05T17:19:00.001-04:00

Do you have a business question that you would like to bounce off of an objective coach? Just post a comment here and I’ll pick one or two daily to discuss!

Chalk Talk: WSJ article - "Start-Ups Share Space to Shave Costs in Slump"

2009-08-05T17:10:00.003-04:00

Last week’s Wall Street Journal had a nice article about a subject near and dear to my heart – co-working. It’s a concept that I use for my business, as do many of my clients. The DC/Northern Virginia owners of Intelligent Office are clients of mine, just as my business is a client of theirs. Not only do they provide both permanent and temporary office space (including conference rooms), but they also provide what is – in my opinion – the much more valuable service of “support.” From having a live receptionist answer your calls, to having someone plan your meetings, manage your calendar/e-mails, send out thank-you cards, etc., Intelligent Office provides a level of support that would otherwise require that you hire someone full-or-part-time. Now, ideally your business would grow to the level that you would need to hire an administrative/executive assistant, but until that point, companies like Intelligent Office will provide a level of service that will enable you and your staff to focus on what you do best – execute and grow your business – rather than spend your valuable time on administrative work. It’s important to note that this service works even if you have your own office – the receptionist/administrative support is available regardless of your physical location.

Enjoy the article, and think about how you can incorporate co-working into your business to either save money on staff/rent or become more effective by freeing up your time to work on your business.

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: My interview on "Tom on Leadership" on BlogTalkRadio

2009-07-25T22:54:00.005-04:00

I had the great opportunity to be a guest on Tom Cox's "Tom on Leadership" BlogTalkRadio show on Friday, July 24th. Tom runs Cox Business Consulting from Beavorton, OR, and in addition to his great radio show, he has an excellent blog where he provides a synopsis of his programs. A great resource!

Tom and I had a discussion about executive coaching:

What is it?
How is coaching different from mentoring?
How does one pick a coach?
What's the value one gets from coaching?

and so on! Please give it a listen if you want to learn a thing or two about coaching, and I also encourage you to put the "Tom on Leadership" show on your "must listen" list!

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Fortune 100 CEOs and Social Media

2009-07-22T15:56:00.004-04:00

I ran across this column in CIO Magazine today regarding the use of social media by Fortune 100 CEOs. Although it’s not really on a topic that I blog about, I was attracted to it because it is not unexpected. I bet if you were to ask them why, you would get answers like:

"I don’t have time"

"I don’t see its value"

"We have a marketing organization that handles this"

and so on.

I must say that I’m a bit torn on this. Whereas I embrace social media and use it more than the average bear, I understand a CEO who argues that he/she has hired someone to do the job for him/her. A CEO should be thinking about leadership and strategy. However, are they in danger of missing out on the opportunity to grab mind-share in the social media space? What would the potential cost be 10 years down the road, or is social media never going to replace traditional means of building brand? Is it good enough to have someone else do it for him/her? Folks like Gary Vaynerchuk have been exceptionally successful with social media, leveraging it into TV appearances, speaking engagements, and book deals. On the other hand, Gary’s firms are not yet in the Fortune 100 range, so is a comparison between Gary V and Mike Duke (Wal-Mart) even relevant?

What do you think? Should large company CEOs get on Twitter, Facebook, et al? Why or why not?

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Mark Dumas Interview - CEO of SPADAC - on The Leaders Spot

2009-07-09T15:56:00.006-04:00

I recently listened to Mark Dumas’ interview on The Leaders Spot, one of the best resources around to gain insights from local, successful business leaders. Mark is the founder, Chairman, and CEO of SPADAC, a Vienna-based firm focusing on delivering solutions in advanced geospatial intelligence, analytic services, research and development, spatial content management, and predictive analysis. Mark’s interview was definitely one of my favorites. Some of the key takeaways for me were:

Mark enables people in his company to take the initiative. This is, in my opinion, one of the most important factors in determining a company’s scalability. If the CEO insists on controlling everything, or at least touching everything, the company’s ability to grow is suppressed. Find ways to encourage and enable your employees to take the initiative.

Time management. Mark spends his time the way a CEO should be spending his time. He spends his time managing, meeting with the CFO to understand his numbers, and meeting with his CTO to understand how SPADAC’s technology programs are coming along. He also practices a technique I learned at the Naval Academy – MBWA: Management By Walking Around. He gets out in the field to just get a feel for how things are coming along and keep a good pulse on his business.

Private Equity is SMART MONEY. What this means is that raising capital via private equity is a win-win situation. The investors want return and a CEO wants return. This is good for everyone. Don’t avoid private equity just because you don’t understand it or because you are concerned about the cost. If the end result is more growth, then the sale of shares of your company will multiply the value of your company.

Mark is liberal with stock options. I love this. If you want your employees engaged in executing your strategic plan, stock options are a fantastic way for you to give them skin in the game. This also discourages trained employees from leaving. Mark is also not worried about ownership dilution through options; he is more interested in growing absolute firm value.

Enjoy the interview!

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Leadership and Management

2009-07-02T17:44:00.004-04:00

I was recently asked about what the difference is between leadership and management. I think the Wall Street Journal's article on the subject does a very good job of articulating the difference (subscription may be required). Among other things, the article explains that in the new economy, managers need to also be leaders. Whereas I definitely agree with this assertion, leaders also need to hire men and women with management skills to run their businesses.

So -- yes -- hire leaders, but also make sure that the people you hire to run an organization for you have the necessary skills to manage their organizations. If not, you won't be able to effectively implement your strategy.

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk. About the book: I Hate People!

2009-06-22T13:28:00.003-04:00

In last week’s Wall Street Journal, I read a book review by Doug Colligan about I Hate People, by Jonathan Littman and Marc Hershon. What struck me about this book – which essentially documents many of the problems with human interaction in modern organizations – is that the identified problems are all driven by poor leadership. Littman and Hershon provide a reasonable response for an employee stuck in these cultures, but they also illustrate one of the main reasons I moved from being an engineer to being a business leader/strategic coach. What causes engineers to get bored, salesmen to move on, or your most productive employees to leave? Poor leadership.

I assert that poor leadership runs rampant through most organizations. It’s not through a lack of trying – most of us who have served in leadership roles have been through numerous training programs designed to help us become better leaders. The problem is execution – once a manager goes through leadership training, what is going to help him improve as a leader 2 months down the road? Once the techniques fail, what is going to drive performance in your organization?

Too often, organizations give short shrift to the cultivation and development of leaders. Even when an organization invests in leadership training, often the entire leadership development effort is completely outsourced to trainers; the critical follow-up by the trainee’s manager does not occur, or if it does, it is forgotten within 2 months. In the meantime, the employee who stabs others in the back is not corrected, or fired, which leads to poor performance throughout the organization. The obsequious employee who does no real work is retained, or promoted, which drives good employees to send out their resumes. A great employee who is extraordinarily creative, but maybe not well suited for doing simple tasks, is almost fired by a poor manager, rather than used in a manner that would make him extremely valuable for the company.

Techniques don't work. Develop yourself and your managers into great leaders. This will take some effort, but if choose not to make this investment of time and resources, make sure you read I Hate People so at least you understand what's happening in your organization.

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Your Best People Will Leave First

2009-06-16T08:47:00.002-04:00

In a meeting last week, a colleague of mine – Alan Farman – reminded the managers in the meeting that

“your best people will leave first”

during periods of uncertainty and expected cut backs. This is an axiom of business, but it is my experience that many managers and entrepreneurs have never learned this important fact. This is the reason that you’ll see key employees receive bonuses and pay increases after a bankruptcy filing. The company is going to need the best and brightest of their employees to help see them through the trough, so they’ll often pay them more to keep them there. This happened to me when I worked at Covad Communications. We entered bankruptcy in the fall of 2001, and that’s when I started getting pretty nice bonuses. I didn’t understand why at the time – this was, after all, the first time a company for which I worked filed for bankruptcy protection.

When times are hard, you’ll have tough decisions to make. One of them will be figuring out how to hold on to your best – and probably highest compensated – employees. Don’t make the wrong decision; figure out how you can keep them on board, before they “flip the switch” and decide that they need to move on.

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Dave Eisele of Davelle Clothiers

2009-06-02T14:02:00.003-04:00

I was pleasantly surprised to see my new haberdasher interviewed on The Leaders Spot recently. David Eisele, the Founder, CEO and Designer of Davelle Colthiers, is one of a kind. If you are serious about your career/business, you already know how important your clothes are. People make first impressions in how we dress and how we groom ourselves. David will help you present the image that reflects who you are and your position – regardless of whether that is in a business suit or in casual wear.

Listen to his interview here and enjoy, and then pay him a visit! Let him know that The Coach sent you!

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Why Good Companies Go Bad

2009-06-01T17:54:00.006-04:00

I stumbled across Gary Hamel’s Wall Street Journal blog today, titled: “Why Good Companies Go Bad,” which was inspired by the news about General Motors today. It’s a great, short read – well worth your effort (although a WSJ.com account may be required). I’m not going to give a synopsis, but I am going to highlight his 3 reasons why businesses go bad:

Gravity wins. The bigger a company gets, the harder it is to grow. A $40M company can grow 25% by increasing sales by $10M; a $4B company has to grow business by $1B to get the same target, and that’s simply not the same as $10M.
Strategies die. The minute you create a strategy, it starts to die, like a human being. Knowing this and taking action keeps companies ahead of the game; doing nothing brings about the inevitable, kind of like when Polaroid pushed instant cameras in the age of digital photography.
Change happens. Few companies handle this well. Apple created the iPod, and then pushed the boundaries again with iPhone. A DC-area company, Erol’s, started off in the TV-repair business. In the 70s and 80s, they moved to videos. In the 90s, they became one of the most popular Internet service providers in the DC region. Instead of insisting on staying in the TV-repair business, they constantly read the tea-leaves and decided instead to remain an on-going business concern.

Staying on top of these things is one of the reasons it makes sense to engage an advisor, or advisors, to ask you tough questions and hold you accountable. Yes, that can mean a strategic business coach like me, but it can also mean a strong board of directors or a strong board of advisors. Enjoy the column!

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: GOYA

2009-05-26T17:15:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago during Board of Trustee meetings for my alma mater's Alumni Associatio n, Vice Admiral Hank Mustin, USN (ret) used a term that was simple and to the point: GOYA.

As VADM Mustin explained to us, it's a term that naval aviators used to use as a call to action. It stands for Get Off Your A$@. This is the ultimate key to success, since you're not going to effect any changes in your life, your business, or your world by doing nothing.

So, GOYA and make it happen!

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Delegation

2009-05-25T23:23:00.003-04:00

I listened to the interview with Kay Sears on The Leaders Spot recently. Kay is the President of Intelsat General. It was a good interview, but one area where I disagree with Kay is in her description of delegation. She said:

"delegation works if the delegator works, too."

Whereas I think I understand what she's trying to say, I figured that this would be a good opportunity to flesh out when delegation works.

Delegation works when we define the work well, establish appropriate metrics, and follow-up. Again, that might be what she meant, but she seemed to indicate that when we roll up our sleeves is when delegation works. Rolling up our sleeves will certainly give us credibility with our teams (which certainly helps with delegation), but delegation won't work unless we:

- Define the work
- Measure the work we want completed, and
- Follow-up.

Grow Strong!!!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Nick Magliato's Interview on The Leaders Spot

2009-05-13T18:28:00.003-04:00

Nick Magliato's interview on The Leaders Spot is one of the best interviews I've heard to date. Nick is the CEO of Trust Digital, and his interview revealed a CEO who "gets it." Here are a few of the pearls of wisdom I harvested from him:

- You have to believe in your technology [product, service, etc.] when no one else does.
- What I am developing today will be a commodity next week [so make sure your company invests in innovation]
- Every day you need to make some progress towards some end goal.
- It takes years to develop a high-quality executive team; it may require some fires and hires to get there
- You only regret choices you don't make as CEO.
- His response to the following Forbes quote (from Elbert Hubbard),

"An executive is one who makes a decision and is sometimes right,"

was

"Amen!"

Amen to that. Executives need to make decisions -- not overanalyze a problem to death.

Enjoy the interview!!! It's definitely worth the investment of your time!

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Forging Good Leaders in Bad Times

2009-05-07T10:53:00.002-04:00

I read an excellent article on CIO.com called "Forging Good Leaders in Bad Times," by Stephanie Overby. regarding the importance of continuing the process of identifying and developing leaders in your organization, even in the down times. Although this column develops the topic based on the current economic situation, these concepts ring true regardless of the times. The author and CIO.com do a good job of bringing this topic up now when so many business leaders are likely to de-emphasize leadership development.

My colleague -- and fellow Annapolis alumnus -- John Ryan's organization, the Center for Creative Leadership, also gets some good press!

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Business Leadership Feature at the Wall Street Journal!

2009-05-05T17:43:00.003-04:00

I got an e-mail yesterday from the Wall Street Journal that announced their new Lessons in Leadership Series, which they describe as,

"...This one-of-a-kind educational archive gives you access to the best insights and practices of today's most compelling and influential leaders. It offers a chance to draw inspiration from world class figures in business, sports, or politics, on topics ranging from "managing your people" to "developing a leadership style" and much, much more."

My quick review of the website (subscription required) revealed a treasure trove of information. I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to leadership resources, since you often get a lecture from someone who is a know it all claiming that he/she has the secret. Don't get me wrong, training from these folks, or books written by them, are valuable, but I believe the best resource is learning from a bunch of other leaders. Their failures tell you what to avoid, and their successes -- even if they are described in a self-adoring fashion -- still give you great insight that may help you solve a problem in your own business.

This resource alone is worth the subscription to an online Wall Street Journal account! Enjoy!

GrowStrong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: How not to handle your customers

2009-04-27T16:49:00.002-04:00

I had an interesting "chat" today with my wireless carrier. I am interested in getting a wireless modem for my laptop so that I can get a little more flexibility in my life. I went to my carrier's website, selected a model, and then decided to chat with sales to get a couple of my questions answered before I bought. She answered my technical questions reasonably, but it won't be until I actually get the unit and try it out before I'll find out whether or not my needs are satisfied. So, I asked about the guarantee. It's a reasonable guarantee (30 days, money-back, no early termination charges), with the exception of one point -- a $35 restocking fee.

Now, I understand the purpose of a $35 restocking fee (it keeps people from being cavalier in their purchases, among other things), but in today's recession, with a very competitive wireless marketplace, I don't need to pay a $35 restocking fee. So, I asked my saleswoman, over chat, whether I can get this fee waived. After all, my business and my family are long-time loyal customers (since 2003). Her answer? "IMPOSSIBLE!!!!"

Impossible? This is a mere $35! You mean no one in the entire company can waive this fee for long-time customers who have not exhibited a tendency to return items (never returned a phone)? No one? Impossible? This is just stupid. It's not the sales person's fault, but it is the company's fault. Why on earth are they training their sales staff to treat existing clients this way? There is no incentive for me to keep this particular business with this vendor -- I can go anywhere. Why, oh why, would they act this way? IMPOSSIBLE???

Your existing clients are your best source of business. It costs between 5-9 times more to acquire a new customer than to hold on to an existing customer. I called them! I'm an easy upsell!! They can get an extra $80 a month from me. Nope. It's impossible.

Don't treat your clients this way. New customers, maybe. Annoying clients, maybe, but not long-term, always paying on-time, loyal customers. That's business malpractice.

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Jason Tienor interview on The Leaders Spot

2009-04-17T16:31:00.006-04:00

Today's Chalk Talk takes us back to one of my favorite resources -- The Leaders Spot. I recently listened to the interview with Jason Tieno r, the CEO of Telkonet. Here are my comments:

"Work Hard." Jason mentioned that the key to his success is working hard, and I would agree with that, but there's a great deal to be said for "working smart." What that means is that it is better to work hard at the RIGHT things, rather than just work hard at EVERYTHING. The former leads to effectiveness, the latter leads to burnout. My observation from the interview was that Jason wants to do everything, and that's not good advice when you are trying to grow a business. A CEO who wants to do everything will constrain the growth of his/her company.

Leadership Takeaway: Jason gives some great advice here. First, he says to surround yourself with the best people. Second, he says attack one thing at a time. Last, he says don't micromanage. Great, great, great advice!

Problem Solving: Rebecca (the host) suggests that problem solving is 95% of a CEO's job. Jason subtlety disagrees by saying that being able to prioritize is the most important part of a CEO's job -- bravo, Jason! That's absolutely right! If the CEO is not spending his/her time setting the direction and making sure the company stays on that direction, mediocrity will be the result.

Decisions by Committee. Generally I would say that this is a bad idea, and although Jason calls this his decision-making process, the interview seems to suggest otherwise. I think Jason knows and demands that the buck stops with him, but he seeks out the advice and input from others on his team and Board before making a decision. Given his relative inexperience (he's 33), this shows great insight and humility. One of the hallmarks of a great leader.

So, overall, I'd say that Jason sounds like he's a competent leader. Look to see his name more and more in the future!

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Keeping your business going after you're gone

2009-04-15T17:52:00.004-04:00

There was a news alert last week from the Wall Street Journal with the headline: "Jobs Maintains Grip at Apple" (link may require a subscription). I think if I were a shareholder at Apple, I would have mixed emotions about this:

1) I would happy that, at least in the short-term, Steve Jobs is keeping his creative juices in the company and helping it on to its next big success.
2) I would be concerned that the company still relies too heavily on him. This says a great deal about the sustainability of the Apple enterprise.

Steve should not be coming to me for advice, since he's achieved far more than I have. However, if I were to give him advice, it would be that he really need to cultivate his replacement. I think that COO Tim Cook is probably doing a great job of running the company, but Steve needs to find the next visionary to replace him. Apple will outlive him, ideally, so how good a job he does in developing the next visionary will determine how many lives Apple will positively impact long after he is gone. His employees, their families, their communities; his shareholders, their families, their communities; his customers, and his vendors, are all counting on him to do this right.

Think about that for your own business -- are you preparing it to succeed after you're gone?

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Friendly, not Friends, Part 2

2009-04-13T15:55:00.003-04:00

After I wrote my earlier post on leadership, I realized that I neglected to provide a great illustration. The movie U-571 is a great study in the evolution of a leader. In the beginning of the movie, Matthew McConaughey's character LT Andrew Tyler does not get a recommendation from his commanding officer (played by Bill Paxton) to get command of his own submarine. His CO tells him that the reason why is that he essentially is too friendly with his men.

This friendliness causes LT Tyler problems later in the movie, when some of his enlisted men delay before following his orders. Under the guidance of his senior enlisted advisor, Chief Klough (played by Harvey Keitel), he learns how to be a real leader. At the end, he sends one of his men to his death, but that man's death saves the crew AND prevents the Germans from learning that the US has possession of the ENIGMA machine.

The bottom line is that LT Tyler's overly friendly relationship with his men almost cost them all dearly. It was only by transforming into a real leader, and by getting the help of Chief Klough, that he was able to take charge and effectively lead his team.

Watch the movie to learn more!

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Friendly, not Friends

2009-04-08T17:35:00.005-04:00

Quick leadership thought. I wrote about this in a newsletter column a few months ago, and it's the idea that as a leader of your business, you no longer can be friends with your employees. You can certainly be friendly, and I strongly recommend that, but not friends.

What's the difference:

1) Friendly: having some drinks together with the team. Friends: getting drunk with one guy on the team.
2) Friendly: getting to know a little about each other's family. Friends: getting intimate details about each other's family.
3) Friendly: getting together once in awhile to socialize after work (family time). Friends: getting together frequently to socialize after work.

You can probably figure the rest out for yourself, and you may even take issue with some of my points. The bottom line is that when your employees begin considering you their friend, and not their boss, you're going to have problems when you need to get tough for poor performance. You may also have problems if others get jealous of your relationship.

Remember! As a leader, be friendly, not friends.

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Ask the Coach!

2009-04-05T20:11:00.002-04:00

Do you have a business question that you would like to bounce off of an objective coach? Just post a comment here and I’ll pick one or two daily to discuss! Keep in mind that this is coaching, not necessarily advice, so what you’ll get from me will generally be questions that I would ask you if I was coaching you.

It’s free, and others will learn through the process!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Eat That Frog!

2009-04-05T20:04:00.002-04:00

I just posted a link in my "favorite links" section for Eat That Frog! It's a great analogy for time/priority management. I use this all the time in my workshops when we talk about strategic day management. It's short, so use it in good health!

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: The Leaders Spot interview of Anirudh Kulkarni

2009-04-03T15:34:00.004-04:00

No questions to answer today, so I thought I would send you to a great interview on The Leaders Spot of Anirudh Kulkarni, the Founder and Managing Principal of Customer Value Partners. Please pay particular attention to his discussion of strategic changes. He reinforces my point that most strategies fail in the implementation stage (planning is the easy part). He discusses how he helps clients implement strategies. He also has an interesting philosophy called "success rhythms." Check it out and enjoy!

Grow Strong!

Ingar

Chalk Talk: When do I add other business practices?

2009-04-02T19:29:00.004-04:00

The next question comes my Annapolis classmate Rolf Versluis, who is also the owner of Adcap Network Systems, Inc. Great question and insight, Rolf! Thanks!

Ingar, I have found that it helps quite a bit to focus on being good at just a few things, and to ignore many other opportunities that are presented because it blurs the vision of the organization. Assuming that strategy, do you have any guidelines on how to determine when it is time to add other business practices?

Rolf, one of my favorite movie lines is from "Sweet Home Alabama." At the end of the movie, when Reese Witherspoon's character learns that she is still married to her formerly estranged husband, she looks to her father for guidance. He answers: "Honey, you can't ride two horses with one [backside]." This goes along well with your observation that it helps to focus on being good at just a few things. However, as I'm sure you have found, sometimes it makes sense to vertically integrate (maybe for quality control reasons), and sometimes it makes sense to horizontally integrate (when there are complementary products and services that you feel you can provide profitably). Although both can be appealing because of the revenue increase you can generate, the problem is -- as we both noted -- you can lose sight of your vision.

I found the following resources that are pretty helpful at listing the pros and cons:

Vertical Integration. My big disagreement with the authors is that they assert that you can expand your core competencies. I disagree. I think any integration would likely erode your core competency.

Horizontal Integration. Although this explanation leans toward acquisition, the pros/cons are still valid for organic horizontal integration.

Bottom line: integration can be very tempting, but we are well advised to tread carefully. If it erodes our core competency, we'll be at a competitive disadvantage.

Grow Strong!

Coach Grev

Chalk Talk: Delegating to staff and "breaking away."

2009-03-31T16:29:00.004-04:00

Today's question was asked by a client of mine, Lyle Yablonsky, Vice President at Axa Advisors. Thanks, Lyle!

"Ingar, you've always told me to think strategic, but it's not always
easy. I'm struggling to get out of the "weeds" and turn my recruiting and
training responsibilities over to my staff. How in the world can I break away?"

That's a great question, Lyle, and also a problem with which most business leaders struggle. I wrote about this in the Washington Business Journal, and I'll flesh out some of the points here:

1) Delegation works only if employees know where the business is going and why. Your documented processes are not going to cover everything, so your vision (NOT your vision statement, per se) is what will guide their decision making in lieu of documented processes.
2) It follows from point 1 above that you should have documented processes, or an operations manual. If you do, then all the work that your staff needs to do for recruiting and training should be well defined. So, get out of the way of your staff and don’t meddle in their work. Instead manage by results. You should have clear metrics defined that demonstrate how effectively your staff are completing the training and recruiting tasks. If not, then this may be a reason that you have not been able to distance yourself. DON'T DO WHAT OTHERS ARE QUITE CAPABLE OF DOING FOR THEMSELVES.
3) What are the incentives for your staff? Are the incentives right? Are they incentivized to allow you to keep doing the training and recruiting while they go out and develop new clients? Take a moment to consider this; if the upside is with client development, unless you shift the incentives, they'll never be motivated to train and recruit. Have you found the right staff people to do recruiting and training? In other words, have your found the staff members who actually want to grow their own teams? Is this important enough to you that you are willing to spend your own money on this?
4) What are your own incentives for breaking away? Do you understand how much money you are leaving on the table by doing the work others are doing? Are you willing to allow them to do the work 70% as well as you? 80%? What's your own level of pain; what impact is this causing on your personal life and your personal income?

I hope that little primer on delegation helps, Lyle. Thanks for the great question!

GrowStrong!

Coach Grev