Posts Tagged ‘ Leadership ’

How do you develop a winning mission statement?

One that fits on the back of your business card but doesn’t clutter the whole thing up?

The more important question is: When do you write your mission statement?

Many want to write a mission statement too soon.

How do you develop leaders in your organization?

One of the ways I give back to the community is to volunteer as a Varsity Coach for the Boy Scouts of America.  I work with 14 to 18 year old young men.

We just completed a 57 mile hike at Philmont near Cimarron, New Mexico.

In that setting, you learn about life and leadership.

If you want to move your business and your life forward, you need to improve your ability to communicate well.

The best innovations will never change the world if they do not have a champion.  Someone to push them forward.  Someone to spread the word.

If you want to implement change in your business (whether you are the owner or an employee) you must communicate effectively.

How can you develop your communication skills?

I know what I said last week.  It still applies in most situations.  But in a climate of disruptive innovations, listening to your customers can cost you industry leadership.

Your customers know what they need now.  But if you always base your plans off of what your customers think they want in the future you will lose your position of industry leadership.

Your customers are chasing markets with higher sales and higher margins.  They should and you should.  But there are new businesses trying to expand from their markets to yours.

An example from the steel industry over the last 20 years in the United States is a prime example of this problem.

Who are you?

What is your business?

If you can’t answer those questions, you’re in trouble.

The answers to those questions dictate how you interact with your customers and employees.

Your business mission statement is the most important part of your business plan because it tells you what else is important.

Creating something new causes pain.  That’s just the way it is.  Especially anything worthwhile: a birth, a new nation, artwork, a marriage.

If you want a successful business, then you MUST be able to endure pain.

Almost anyone who decides to start a business has determination.  But they don’t always have success in their new venture.  About two thirds of startups survive two years, but only half survive more than five years.  What makes the difference between the winners and losers?

Does your business plan have an effective dashboard to measure results?  If you can’t measure your results and compare them to your goals, your business will fail!

Here are three rules that will help you make an effective business plan dashboard.

Rule #1: Test and Track.

Start with your goals or you’ll never get there. These could be referrals, cost per lead, lead conversions, limiting waste, increasing quality, more sales, or whatever.  More below the fold about what your goals should be.

It doesn’t matter if you start a dry cleaning business, a pizza franchise, or a construction business, you need to understand what strategy will make you successful.  But you also need to know how to implement your strategy.  Your team needs to know how and why and why it works.  Any ambiguity will undermine your success.

So what do you do to identify a crystal clear strategy that drives your entire business plan?  Well, it starts with asking the right questions.  For example: What business is McDonald’s in?

Innovation is the key to success.  But where do you look for it?

One way to learn about innovation is to look at the fastest growing companies in the world.  Usually, these are the guys who get venture capital funding.  They are looking for fast growth and a five to seven year payout.

Amar Bhidé does a study (on the macroeconomic level) of these high growth VC funded companies in The Venturesome Economy: How Innovation Sustains Prosperity in a More Connected World.

Bhidé points out that over the last 100 years, “the nontraded sector has increased from 60 percent to about 80 percent of GDP” (Bhidé  298).