RELEARNING HOW TO FLY

I had an encounter with a dragon fly the other day. He had flown too close to our pool and had inadvertently “splashed”. There I found him upside down and motionless on the pool surface. He was a big guy with a five inch wing span, colorful and with very peculiar markings. I found out later that he was a “Black Saddlebagged” Dragon Fly.

I thought he was dead and proceeded to scoop him out with my leaf net. But as soon as my net touched him he clawed at it and scrambled onboard like a ditched pilot to a rescue raft. I paused at the spectacle and the size of the beast as he gathered his bearings, tested his wings, took off and cart-wheeled back into the pool like a helicopter with a tail rotor malfunction. He lay there motionless again. I scooped him up again. He re-tested his wings but didn’t attempt a take-off this time. The markings on his beating wings created the illusion of three dimensional “bags” saddling his body. I rested the net on the edge of the pool and looked for a stick which I used to transfer him to an Iris shoot in my garden. He seemed to like that.

For about three hours he stayed there perched on the Iris shoot, motionless. He would not fly off. I figured he was recovering, drying-out. I checked on him once in awhile and he even let me pet him - but he stayed glued to that Iris shoot. I thought maybe he was too far gone to fly and was slowly dying.

The sun was setting and I was beginning to get concerned that he might become food for some nocturnal hunter – we have bats. I started to nudge him to fly off and return to whatever safe haven dragon flies go to at night. He wouldn’t even beat his wings. Then it occurred to me – maybe he had just given up the idea of flying and was “playing it safe”. But he was created to fly and he needed to fly. So I had an idea.

I offered him another stick and gently urged him onto it. Waving the stick slowly, I began to walk him around my yard like a child might with a toy glider, letting the air flow across his wings. Then in one smooth arcing motion I swung the stick up and flicked him off into the air. He catapulted upward, began to fall and then, as though snapping out of a daze, his wings sputtered to life - he hovered for a just a moment as if doing a “systems check”, did a little circle and took off in a straight line – a “bee line” – a determined line – into the dusk.

He was himself again. And NO, a bat didn’t swoop down and eat him!

“Saddlebags”

"If black boxes survive air crashes, why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?" ~George Carlin~

I help business and organization leaders define and achieve their ambitions by helping them address the issues problems and opportunities - not acted upon – that dominate their thoughts.
For most of us it’s been a tough go. Maybe you haven’t “flown” for a while. It’s time fly.

All the Best!
Bill

Power To The People!

“In times of change – learners inherit the earth.” ~ Eric Hoffer ~
The “people factor” peculiar to small businesses. As businesses downsize – less may become more but less certainly becomes critical. In small businesses, flat org-charts are the norm – and both a strength and weakness. It takes a certain type of person to thrive in a small business environment – especially nowadays. Wearing many hats and enduring shifting priorities and tempos can wear on the non-generalist. This goes for both the entrepreneur/owner AND those on his/her staff. The stress is especially acute for those who may have been on the job for some time (having acclimated to the organization during simpler and more relaxed times) or who have formerly luxuriated in a single-discipline focus. CEOs take note: though your staff certainly appreciates their jobs – they have endured downsizings and taken on more responsibilities along the way. This HAS added mental and emotional stress. Be proactive before vital links begin to fracture. Sometimes an outsider’s perspective can detect fractures that you cannot.

Is your front office (you know - your SG&A cost center) disconnected from it’s business enterprise roots? In his book, Shop Class As Soul Craft (©2009 by The Penguin Press), Matthew Crawford looks at the office dynamics of small and large corporations that have lost focus on individual contribution and how new “office centric” and often non-productive and erroneous criteria for performance are diluting SG&A value and derailing companies. You know, like focusing on political correctness versus getting the job done and office cultures that use limp phrases like “I don’t disagree with you” that lead to phony consensus building.

In growing enterprises, valuable and contributing individuals are promoted and given increasing responsibility and authority – sometimes beyond their capability – “The Peter Principal”. These very key players can become roadblocks to further progress when their ambitions digress from those of their leader.

Having ambitions and being ambitious are two very different things. A wise business leader is conscious of this. I cannot count the times I’ve seen key middle managers holding back a company while paying lip service to the ambitions of an earnest CEO. The toughest group are the seasoned veterans who have given their all to ambitious projects and implementations in the past. They may no longer “see the light”, they may be tired or just plain coasting toward retirement. These reluctant participants may often be individuals who are viewed as vital. The questions is this; is your ambitious plan equally as vital as you perceive these individuals to be? If so - a line must be drawn. Who may quit and who may need to move on is a function of the CEO’s commitment to and ambitions for the enterprise – for the good of the enterprise. CEOs should realize that their ambitions may exceed the ambitions of their staff and then have the courage to break through resistance – no matter what the perceived or feared consequences in employee turnover may be. Such fears generally exceed reality. This is why enterprises that embrace a culture of change and continuous improvement have a vitality borne from their culture and not supposed “vital” individuals.

Are your production workers BAD ROBOTS? Matthew Crawford (Shop Class As Soul Craft), makes another good observation about worker mentality in the modern age – “If occasions for the exercise of judgment are diminished, the moral-cognitive virtue of attentiveness will atrophy.”(pg. 101) In other words, too much monotony and systemization in human operations can become counter-productive. All the written procedures and auditing you care to apply will not stem this human result. In certain environments where human involvement in productivity approaches that of machines - you might as well invest in the robots - because your workers will evolve into mindless and, worse, error prone automatons.

Along the same line, organizations that lack ambition will trend toward mediocrity in human capital. Jason Jennings in Hit The Ground Running,©2009 puts it like this, ”Without growth a company will eventually be unable to hire and keep talented people. People work for businesses in the hope of achieving their own full economic potential. When highly talented and ambitious people discover that a brighter tomorrow doesn’t exist, they’ll leave at the first opportunity. Eventually the only people left will be those incapable of finding work elsewhere.”(pg.28)

I help organizations define and achieve their ambitions and I’m available to listen and hear about the problems, issues and opportunities - not acted upon - that dominate your thoughts. That’s where it starts.

All the Best!
Bill

Where are we headed?

“As the leader, when you enter a brainstorming session – take the cotton out of your ears and place it in your mouth.” ~ Seen on a online Business Leadership Chat Site ~

Where are businesses focusing in this recovery? What is working for others? A 2010 Executive Market Intelligence Report surveyed executive recruiters to identify the top high-growth functions for executive placements in 2010. They were, in ranked order:

1) Business Development
2) Sales
3) Operations Management
4) Engineering
5) Marketing
6) General Management
7) Finance
8) R&D
9) MIS/Information Technology
10) All other disciplines

What does this tell you? If you consider the top five categories, there is a theme: Top line growth, bottom line control and adaptation/optimization of “what you have”.
If you haven’t gotten the message yet, the present and future are going to be all about change. As soon as businesses relax their hold on what used to work and begin to embrace the concept of change, new methods, new perspectives and new market adaptive directions - business should begin to accelerate into a drive-able recovery.

“Sometimes if you hold on too tight to what you have, you end up choking it.”~ Anonymous ~

REALITY: Most will agree that inflation is coming (no one knows when but it's coming) and that the economy is going to take a long time de-leveraging - so cash will continue to be tight for some time. Government stimulus programs will phase out later this year and the hand-off to the private sector for the recovery will take place. That hand-off will be felt in the form of a dip in the recovery. Businesses already have cut costs - so liquidity will have to come from revenue growth. The market WILL NOT ALLOW revenue growth from price increases. Revenue growth will have to come from sales diversification and market share growth. In other words - successful competition. Most businesses recognize that they need a plan for that. Such a plan involves much more than new advertisements and adding to the sales force.

BUSINESS PLANS AND THE RECOVERY. Small and Mid-size businesses (SMBs) intuitively know that there is no standard blueprint for their specific business – they have to draw it themselves. Yet, most SMBs don’t take the time to initiate and maintain even the most modest of business planning processes.

Successful businesses have plans. So why don’t more SMBs have one?
Here are FIVE reasons why:
Reason #1: Belief that a business plan is only required when borrowing or when soliciting investors.
Reason #2: Belief that a business plan will constrain the owner’s creativity, be too rigid and diminish the ability to flexibly operate the business.
Reason #3: Belief that those who will have to draft the plan are too busy to focus on a plan and that they don’t possess the knowledge or time to do it right – so why bother unless it’s absolutely necessary.
Reason #4: No excuse.
Reason #5: Your reason.

Reasons 2 and 3 are perhaps the most reasonable. It has been said that every business is either in a storm, coming out of a storm or going into a storm. There is never a convenient time to carve out the time to do a deliberate plan. But the reality of changing markets and circumstances really prescribes planning – even if the plan must change and adapt along the way. Business plans are not meant to be stagnant documents.

“I was wondering why the baseball was getting larger and larger – then it hit me!” ~ gotta be Yogi Berra ~

Larger companies employ Boards of Directors and Advisors who use a business plan as the subject of their fiduciary attentiveness. These Boards bring external perspective, experience and provocative ideas that stimulate thought and action for the good of the enterprise. Small business owners with their day-to-day perspective rarely have access to such talent and the accountability to success that comes with it.

Business planning is a project that becomes a process. I'm working with companies that undertook an internal business planning project that quickly identified other profitable projects of opportunity that presented themselves along the way. We took those new paths – and we’re still doing the business plan. That’s okay!

Through relationship oriented business advisor/management consultants like WayPoints Partners, you can bring an external perspective, objectivity and a sympathetic resonance with the issues of small businesses into YOUR small business. With it you will get fresh energy and sense of urgency for success at a fraction of the cost and without all the formality of a Board of Directors. You also get an advocate for your business through the many network contacts of your advisor - and, perhaps, some marketing and sales experience and intuition that will kick-in for REVENUE GROWTH.

The WayPoints Partners motto, “with you along the way … all the way” is a good example of the relationship orientation you will want from a business advisor/consultant such that any business planning process that you might jointly initiate doesn’t become a dusty document left on the shelf but part of an ongoing and evolving business success story.

All the best!

Bill

"LEADERS - Bring it on!"

“Do or do not. There is no try.” ~ Yoda ~
What Successful Leaders Bring. I like to read the websites of venture capital and equity investment firms – where they expound on their successes. A recurring theme; Their team or the CEO they placed into an investment entity was able to bring leadership, execution and sales growth. Indeed, any chief executive can’t be seen as just the boss but as one who stimulates activity and brings fresh energy into a company. Decisiveness is often a keynote trait of leadership and such behavior from a newcomer is often mistaken as change for change sake. Not so.

Execution is staying with the strategy (making decisions along the way) and not being distracted by the day to day. Fresh energy is found in the readiness to make decisions. Further, successful companies are started by entrepreneurs who had a vision and passion for a product – that met a market need - and who had a burning passion to sell. Somewhere along the line that passion may get diffused with time and the hand-off to a sales force that may or may not possess that same initiating passion in product meeting market need. Successful leaders bring that passion and a talent for sustaining aggressive and market adaptive efforts. Markets change – you must change. This market HAS changed.

“The only time a man has the right to look down on another is when he is helping him to get up.” ~ Author Unknown ~

BOWLING FOR SUCCESS: To gauge the success or failure of a system implementation, culture shift or new practice; apply the Bowling Ball Test. If you have laid the proper groundwork, explained the reasons and goals, provided the resources for success, trained the people, delegated authority and established buy-in, your new initiative will roll on its own after the initial push. If not, it will behave like a bowling ball in the sand – push, push all you want but it won’t roll after you stop pushing.

- OBSERVANCES -
May is a month of special remembrance of sacrifice. We observe Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day and Mothers Day in May. My words are insufficient - so I offer these;


Motherhood ~ Joaquin Miller (1839-1913)


The bravest battle that ever was fought!
Shall I tell you where and when?
On the maps of the world you will find it not;
'twas fought by the mothers of men.

Nay not with the cannon of battle-shot,
with a sword or noble pen;
Nay, not with eloquent words or thought
from the mouths of wonderful men!

But deep in a walled-up woman's heart -
of a woman that would not yield,
but bravely, silently bore her part -
lo, there is the battlefield!

No marshalling troops, no bivouac song,
no banner to gleam and wave;
But oh! those battles, they last so long -
from babyhood to the grave.

Yet, faithful still as a bridge of stars,
she fights in her walled-up town -
Fights on and on in her endless wars,
then silent, unseen, goes down.

Oh, ye with banners and battle-shot,
and soldiers to shout and praise!
I tell you the kingliest victories fought
were fought in those silent ways.

O spotless woman in a world of shame,
with splendid and silent scorn,
Go back to God as white as you came -
the Kingliest warrior born!

Thanks Mom …


All the best!
Bill

What's in YOUR Logic?

“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers.” ~ Colin Powell ~
Deductive? Inductive? Abductive? Last month we looked at introverted or directional thinking and compared it with extroverted or intersectional thinking - which can vault companies and whole markets forward with great leaps of breakthrough innovation.

I recently came across a related article in Bloomberg Businessweek (January 25, 2010) titled "Innovation’s Accidental Enemies" by Roger Martin & Jennifer Riel. I have to share it.

Martin & Riel argue that most ideas provoke an impulse to demand proof of viability through deductive or inductive reasoning. In deductive reasoning, an idea is stacked up against a widely held rule. In inductive reasoning a new rule is developed from a base of accepted data. Great breakthrough innovations, however, often correlate to no established set of rules - nor can they draw on any font of data to derive a “certainty of success”. What to do? Toss it all to luck? Move forward on NO logical basis? The authors propose a third form of reasoning: ABDUCTIVE logic - the logic of what could be. Abductive logic can be used to make an inference – a leap in logic. I love this because it resonates so well with intersectional thinking.

To illustrate, here’s a paraphrased excerpt; “At Research In Motion (RIM), maker of the Blackberry, abductive logic is embedded in the culture. RIM’s founder encourages his people to explore big ideas and apparent paradoxes to push beyond what they can prove to be true in order to see what might be true. In the mid 1990s RIM was a modestly successful pager company but its founder wanted to get into portable email devices. He imagined something much smaller than a laptop but easier to type on than a cell phone. A super miniaturized QWERTY format keyboard had feasibility limitations (remember the Palm Stylus?) - UNTIL - he achieved a leap of logic: What if we typed using only our thumbs? A prototype quickly proved the logic and the Blackberry was born! Asking what could be true and jumping into the unknown is critical to innovation. Nurturing such ideas versus killing them is the tricky part. Once this hurdle is cleared the “proofs” can be developed and a vision of the future can be turned into fact.”

“When something is unsustainable – it stops.” ~ Anonymous ~
The “MOD QUAD”
Modified “Quad-Charts” can be used to reduce projects to their significant talking points and help succinctly visualize new opportunities (new product vectors). Quad Charts are great for provocative brainstorming because they force simplicity and keep cross functional management teams focused. They can be made a part of a strategic business plan for sustainable market relevance. Quad Charts are ONE page by design and deliberately succinct. Could you do one for your new development? Here’s a template:

How do you know when a change initiative has been successful? Just because you have concocted a plan and launched it does not mean that your execution has been successful. Initial employee enthusiasm from the CEO’s announcement, the big pizza party, the new incentive program, mugs and ball caps will fade and with it will evaporate your hopes of residual impact. Sustainable change is usually marked by four key indicators. These indicators will be observed from your employees.
• Declarations and testimonials are heard.
• There is appetite for more.
• Value adjustments are observed – culture shift is evident - change and productivity related peer pressure is evident at the shop floor level.
• Members become evangelists and the initiative has legs of its own without management prodding.


“Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars.” ~Warren Buffet ~
Zen and the Art of Raking (If you don’t have trees – you can skip this piece.)
It amazes me how much garbage falls out of the sky (or trees actually). Every year, as the seasons cycle, I’m constantly raking. My lawn is perpetually littered. I’m raking in the Fall of course, but I’m raking well into Winter. I rake in the Spring and all through the Summer too. It is truly incredible how much “stuff” trees shed in the course of the year. Leaves – sure, but bark, old branches, major limbs, the husks and fluff from spring buds. Pulled from the ground, converted into biomass and deposited on my lawn. Nature, self-pruning, making way for new growth. I partially heat my home with a wood stove and I never have a lack of kindling. I just walk outside and scavenge twigs and branches right off the ground. Fabulous!

Many large branches also fall in the dead of winter that were probably wounded by some big wind long ago. Unattended, those limbs eventually dried up, lost their leaves and stood naked until their brittleness succumbed to gravity. I often look up expectantly at the “not yet fallen”, out of reach – destined to fall and stoke my stove.

I think about people who, in their youth and strength, flail at life and receive for all their efforts wounds they often don’t even feel until much later in life. I know I’ve been wounded and I’ve wounded myself. I’ve wounded others. Someone once told me “we’re all victims of victims”. But I can tend to my wounds and those I’ve inflicted if I recognize them. It’s never too late. I don’t have to lose any limbs.

And then there’s the ground itself – the substrate of my raking. Freezing and thawing the ground seems to push things out onto the surface or gobble them up. I think it’s a function of mass. The winter loosens up the dirt like no cultivator ever could. When I recall how concrete hard the ground can get in the dry heat of August it’s amazing the see how frost-heave, soaking rain and time can so effectively loosen it up again. So patient, so efficient. I think about hardened people and how time works on them and softens them physically and emotionally. Most become fertile and more open with time. Some resist and stay hardened – and barren of new growth.

As I rake through the seasons I find meaning in Proverbs 20:29; “The glory of young men is their strength and the splendor of old men is their gray head.” I’d personally like to think that the author also meant “bald” head. Spring is upon us! Maybe the Winter has loosened us up a little (I think the recession surely has). Maybe we’ve reconciled some old wounds, healed them, done some spiritual pruning and readied ourselves for new growth. I’ll probably be raking this weekend … weather and soggy ground permitting.

All the Best!
Bill

"Jack be Nimble - Jack be Quick!"

"The Pessimist complains about the wind. The Optimist expects it to change. The Leader adjusts the sails." ~ John Maxwell ~

The Medici Effect

In December I suggested that readers consider viewing their “Vision” and “Mission” through the “Goodwill Industries” lens. On reflection some may have been inspired to refine their vision, mission and slogan statements. Perhaps the exercise prompted the thought and possibly the pursuit of new breakthrough market vectors.

The viability and relevance of your chosen markets and new market vectors calls for a discussion of what Frans Johansson calls the “Medici Effect”. In his book ("The Medici Effect", Harvard Business School Press © 2006) Johansson elaborates on market adaptive endeavors and Directional versus Intersectional business development. The book presents, as a backdrop, the Medici family of Florence, Italy who inspired and nurtured the remarkable Italian and European renaissance period in which cross-cultural interaction and collaborations flourished - leveraging Italy’s unique position as a crossroad for merchant trade.

The Directional approach might be considered the more traditional path of product management that can be described as linear, sequential, even narrow, myopic or in-bred in nature - INTROVERTED. (I apologize for the negative flavor of those descriptives – market loyalty is important – but not in the context of this piece.)

An Intersectional approach will be more interactive, innovative, non-traditional, exploratory, risk-taking, cross-pollinating, farsighted in nature – EXTROVERTED.

Introverted vs. Extroverted market thinking can be the difference between dying businesses and those that experience Great Leaps Forward. Supply chain collaborations and the creation of “virtual” organizations help constituent members get outside of “Directional” orientations that lead to uninspired drift and the death of product lifecycles and helps them swing - as nimble primates - to new vines of opportunity and new fruit bearing trees.

In a previous life at a global performance fiber manufacturer we “crossed a line” that was then viewed as unheard of and risky. We began to talk with product development people at prospective customers in industries in which we had never before conducted business. Some questioned our vague idea of ROI in the initiative, but leadership allowed the foray. We represented ourselves as a “solution” provider with certain “adaptive” technology capabilities. They described market opportunities and we created engineered products that met their criteria. We diversified, launched some new products and enjoyed periods of uncontested market dominance. We had gone ape - swinging to new trees and fruit!

If the goal of intersectional thinking and networking is to lead to innovation, a new concept alone does not constitute an innovation. Innovation in the commercial sense follows the following formula; I (Innovation) = I + I + I - where the right-hand variables are: Idea converted into an Invention that is Implemented

Most established companies and consumers are averse to choices for the new over existing and proven approaches and product lines. I am not an early adopter and neither is over 85% of the population. This involves risk. Aversion to innovation comes from a fear of a business momentum killing “stop to start” scenario. Remember that swinging primate image I gave you a moment ago --- what if he let’s go of the vine he has and the vine he grabs is a wet noodle? Answer: Don’t let go of the old vine. When to let go – if at all – involves decisions to commit capital to nurture or preserve existing CORE investments or to create new parallel CONTINGENCY options (see graphic below). Best of all would be the decision to invest in preserving existing technology that is adaptive to creating new options.

“Not all those who wander are lost.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien ~

Last month I gave you half of a story on answered prayers. I admit it was a very literal example – I asked God for a sign about focus in my life and I immediately come across an orange construction sign washed up on the beach that read “ROAD NARROWS”. The picture I took of that sign was taken on a subsequent trip to pick up the sign (my Pastor asked for it when he heard the story). So here’s the other half of the story;

On that return trip several days later I decided to take my 8 mega-pixel 10X optical/digital zoom camera to document the scene. The camera was safely sealed in one zip lock bag inside another inside a “dry” bag in my cockpit under a neoprene spray “skirt”. (Writing that last sentence I realize I’m definitely a type “A”.) As I headed out onto the water I said a brief prayer and remember thinking to myself, wouldn’t it be neat to receive another “sign”, another special message? Bring it on God!

It’s a clear, calm morning - around 8AM. With the sun rising to my left I head toward the point beyond which is the sign. The panorama before me is a sight to behold. The point of land, all woods and trees to the shore. The backdrop beyond is the craggy white quartz cliff dotted with mature cedars called Crystal Cave point (the eastern slope of Mount Hope) rising out of the Bay. The sun is hitting it all just right, the colors are vivid. The perfect subject for a painting. But there’s more - the picture comes to life!

As I approach my turn point two deer step out of the woods onto the narrow strip of beach – twenty yards in front of me. I’m not kidding. A buck with a rack of antlers standing tall and alert like the elk in the “Hartford” logo and beside him a doe. Incredible! I stop paddling and freeze, they freeze, I drift toward them.

Now fumbling as I try to make as little motion as possible while I get out my camera, I know that I have about 10 seconds - tops - to get a shot before they figure out that I’m not a piece of benign driftwood, spook and bolt. Spray skirt opened, dry bag open, zip lock bag #1 open, zip lock bag #2 open, camera out, lens cap off, camera on – and the deer nonchalantly step into the woods and – vanish, evaporate – poof! - gone! COME OOOOON!

I can’t believe it! God! Why? - - - small, still voice: “No risk no reward ...”
But I was prepared – I had my camera with me – I deserved the shot! - - - firmer voice: “You deserved what? The camera was tucked away – capable yes, safe yes - and useless. No risk no reward. Protect your camera, wrap yourself in your preparation, you have the memory of the image. Be satisfied with that. The photo, however, is for the risk taker ...”

“Blessed is he who expects nothing (for himself), for he shall enjoy everything.”~ Saint Francis of Assisi ~

All the Best!
Bill

Happy, Committed & Focusing

With the New Year still fresh, I am prompted to share something that I picked up in my reading. It’s attributed to Washington Capitals Owner Ted Leonsis who recently spoke on five traits of happy people. It is noted that happy people live longer, are healthier, have good relationships and enjoy a generally better life. No surprise there. But this is not just an attitude thing. Leonsis notes that (truly) happy people share certain traits;

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

“As a Man thinketh in his heart – so is he.” ~ Proverbs 23:7 ~

The Power of Commitment
With January behind us and the momentum of 2010 building it’s a good time to reflect on our ambitions and the likelihood of success as a result of commitment.

What issues, problems or opportunities, not acted upon, are dominating your thoughts?

The following is quoted from the book, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition, 1951 by William H. Murray;

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets: "Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."
Picking up where we left off in December on Relevance & Planning - a few more variables in the mix:

Business Unit Dissection
Better visualize your total business by mentally dissecting it into its true component sectors or units and analyze each unit independent of the others. Each component should stand on its own compelling merits. Plan for each. Some call this Product Management. Good business leaders consider and view their enterprise, initiatives, programs and projects in terms of their manageable elements. Organize to encourage competition for shared corporate (SG&A) resources. If you must carry losers – identify them and for how long you will carry them – as part of the overall “Plan”. The whole is the sum of its parts.

Small Business Working Capital, Business Loans & Investor Wisdom
A second wave of TARP money (tens of billions of dollars we’re told) will soon start cascading down the parched spillways of the banking system toward small businesses. Sounds great, but the irony of it is that anything coming down that chute will certainly not be offered in any fashion similar to the willy-nilly lending sprees of the past. Indeed, conservative lending is the rule (as it has been for most regional banks all along) and lenders are as risk averse as ever. Barring very compelling federal incentives for lenders to take risks – expect a tough “row to hoe” for that working line of credit.

Remember the 5 - “C”s of lending (Character ● Credit ● Capacity ● Collateral ● Cash Flow) - I elaborated last August. Think of it this way; if you are or have been accountable to Venture Capital or Angel investors you know that they invested because:
• your product or service met a real and compelling market need,
• your product performs,
• your product has a big market,
• they had confidence in your management team,
• they knew that you knew your market and your competition,
• you had a good business model and path to market and
• they believed your forecast for profits.

Your lenders require no less assurance except that a lender may factor “valuable” collateral ASSETS into the risk assessment. Key word: VALUABLE - in their eyes.

So what to do? Leases for capital equipment installed for immediate production and sales will be easier to leverage because the asset is new, contributing to current profits and revenues and the intrinsic asset value is known. Real Estate as collateral? –> expect a deep discount on assessed value. Accounts Receivable as collateral? -> your track record on collections and the quality of your AR portfolio will be key. Also, unless your lender has experience in your market and in factoring, they may not be interested in taking a risk on your AR – so seek another lender who has comfort and expect a very cozy lender relationship.

In this recovery, small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) should ANTICIPATE and take on the demeanor of an eager, lean new venture startup toward their lender/investors.

A Closing Note
Those who know me well, know that I’m a winter kayaker. I love to don my drysuit and head out onto the Bay this time of year. There are no other boats (except quahoggers, lobstermen and local commercial draggers), no jet skis or power boats, only nature. (No, I don’t hate powerboats – I like to go fast and in a straight line too sometimes.) The cold deadens whatever noise carries over the water from distant traffic or the occasional barking dog. The wind, waves, the cry of a canvasback gull, the flute-like sound of the beating wings of Buffleheads, the honks of Canada Geese and the nervous peeps of occasional Oystercatchers are all you hear. There is also the bonus of curious harbor seals that appear out of nowhere and shadow you as you paddle. On a few rare occasions I’ve had a pair of Swans fly directly toward me and pass inches over my head (not an intentional fly-by for certain – probably fooled by my low aspect ratio and relative motionlessness). And there’s all sorts of other foreign northern water fowl that winter here. All of these “visitors” appear sometime after Thanksgiving and disappear soon after Saint Patrick’s Day.

Well, a few weeks ago (January 16th to be precise) I embarked on one of my morning outings and as a common practice I said a prayer before setting out. This time I asked God to speak to me with a sign, something, some message about focus in my life. It was a request that led to some marvelous and literal responses. The picture below is one and I’ll share another in the next edition of “…View From The Crow’s Nest.”


“Every excuse I ever heard made perfect sense to the person who made it.” ~ Dr. Daniel Drubin ~

Contemplative Note: 2009 taught me to hold things more loosely - and the best of them came toward me on their own!
All the Best!
Bill