Six Disciplines Leadership Centers to Exhibit at ICF

Attention all business coaches!

Six Disciplines Leadership Centers will be exhibiting at the 10th Annual International Coach Federation (ICF) Conference in San Jose, CA, November 10-12.

At the Conference, we'll be talking to participants about the business opportunity of a Six Disciplines Leadership Center, which are now launching throughout the U.S.

Six Disciplines Leadership Centers are a new class of small business coaching franchise operations that transforms coaching to the next level. Six Disciplines integrates a systematic business-building methodology, practical Internet technologies, and local business coaching and strategic advisory services, to help the best performing organizations to achieve lasting business excellence.

Come by Booth 174 - we're looking foward to meeting with you!

VC Fundraising Still Strong

Venture capital fundraising for the first three quarters of 2005 is already ahead of total fundraising for all of 2004 according to a new study released by the National Venture Capital Association.

In just the first three quarters of 2005 there has been well over $17 billion raised for venture capital and $54 billion for buyout and mezzanine financing.

Accodring to Dr. Jeff Cornwall at The Entrepreneurial Mind, "the money flow has slowed down a bit since Sarbanes-Oxley has all but shut down the IPO market for small to mid-sized firms. However, the funds have had an overhang of cash for almost a year, so their coffers are getting really full of cash."

"What this means to entrepreneurs looking for funding is that the already cash rich venture capitalists have even more money to invest. That makes money more plentiful and terms a little more favorable for ventures looking for equity financing."

BOTTOMLINE: Its is more likely that a VC looks to fund a top-performing organization -- one that has a strong leadership team, attracts and retains quality people, is disciplined in their approach to planning and execution, uses technology strategically, and effectively engages trusted outside advisors.

The Be Excellent™ Blog - Explained

Dave Gray, the CEO at XPlane, focuses a lot on clarity, writing and graphic explanations of business processes.

Here he talks about writing things down, which helps most people to solidify their approach, to articulate their rationale, and to ensure clarity.

He also offers this:

"This is also one of the reasons having a blog can make you a better manager. By writing down your management philosophies and recording your best management conversations you can make your blog a database of best practices and ideas."

Perhaps THAT'S what the Be Excellent™ blog is all about?

(Thanks Dave for the explanation!)

The 10 Faces of Innovation

"Innovation is all about the roles people can play, the hats they can put on."

At Ideo, they've developed 10 people-centric tools, talents, or personas for innovation.

The 10 personas are explained here.

Perhaps most importantly, the first three roles in The Ten Faces of Innovation are about learning. Because one crucial ingredient in a culture of innovation is being able to LEARN faster that the competition.

To which, Fast Company Magazine offers the following:

How to accelerate the learning in your organization?

1. Tap into the power of The Anthropologist, and gather first-hand insights from the field about how people REALLY use your company's offerings. Watch for places where customers stumble, where they hesitate in confusion, ESPECIALLY where they swear in frustration over the status quo. Use that "ground truth" from the field to inform the next iteration of your products and services.
2. Rely on The Experimenter to increase your organization's rate of enlightened trial and error. If you learn from each experiment, and run those experiments quicker and cheaper than others in your industry, you can accumulate more insights and convert them into value at a faster pace.
3. Encourage The Cross-Pollinators on your team, who look far afield--to different divisions,different industries, even different countries--for ideas, and then translate that new-found knowledge for application to your unique circumstances.

BOTTOMLINE: Flexibility is the new strength. Find a way to learn faster.

What Makes or Breaks a New Company?

In their new Harvard Business Review book, "Startups that Work: Surprising Research on What Makes or Breaks a New Company," authors Joel Kurtzman with Glenn Rifkin look at the factors that are most responsible for a start-up’s success. Their book looks at sophisticated research conducted with PricewaterhouseCoopers into 350 companies primarily in telecommunications, semiconductors, software, services, and biotechnology. Dell, Amazon, Staples, and Home Depot are just a few of the companies profiled.

Value, unsurprisingly, turned out to be one of the main drivers of success.

BOTTOMLINE: The companies that have done well in the marketplace have created value through their products and services -- and by expanding the value creation theme with their team members and business partners.

What Is Six Disciplines?

Based on the popularity of the previous post, here's two more video clips from author, CEO and Founder of Six Disciplines Corporation -- Gary Harpst:

• "What is Six Disciplines about?" ( half minute)

• "What are the Six Disciplines?" (six minutes)

You Need to LISTEN!

"You need to LISTEN!"

(How many times did you hear that when you were a kid?)

Ron, over at the Leadership Advantage, offers these insights from the International Listening Association:

• We spend 45% of our waking time in listening, yet we forget 50% of what we hear
• 85% of our learning is derived from listening
• Listeners are distracted, forgetful and preoccupied 75% of the time
• Most people only remember about 20% of what they hear over time
• People listen at about 125 to 250 words per minute, but think at about 1,000 to 3,000 words per minute

With listening being such an important skill, why is so much of our learning based on reading?

What can we learn from listening? Can we even learn more from hearing - and seeing?

Here is Gary Harpst, author of Six Disciplines for Excellence, describing what kinds of organizations are "ready & able" to use Six Disciplines.

Profit Drivers

One of the toughest challenges smaller companies face is learning how to manage their financial performance. Entrepreneurs often think that great financial results just "happen," but that is seldom the case.

Following is a list of the key profit drivers (from the Accounting Blog) for most companies and an explanation of why one driver in particular (price) is far more important than all the others.

For most businesses, there are four major profit drivers:

1. Price
2. Variable Costs (i.e. those costs that vary in direct proportion to revenue, typically represented by cost of sales)
3. Fixed Costs (or overhead)
4. Sales Volume

In other words, these are the underlying issues that directly determine your company's financial performance. If you want to increase profitability, then you have to work on these areas.

BOTTOMLINE: Far and away the most effective strategy for maximizing your company's profit is to aggressively price your products or services, elect to deal only with those customers who see the value that you deliver to them, and not allow price-sensitive customers or competitors dictate your company's pricing strategy across the board. Revenue does not pay the bills or give you the resources you need to grow- that comes from profit.

Productivity. Recruitment. Retention

The folks over at Management-Issues offer up this report from Deloitte Consulting, which reveals what HR professionals see as the greatest threat to their competitiveness:

70% - attracting new talent
66% - inability to retain key talent
34% - incoming workers having inadequate skills

Deloitte's new research points to an inescapable conclusion: the widening skills gap is a global phenomenon, particularly among the categories of key workers who disproportionately drive an organization's performance," said Deloitte partner Cormac Hughes.

"This trend will leave behind companies that do not begin to rethink their approach to talent management," he added.

BOTTOMLINE: "Rather than fight a futile 'war for talent', business leaders should 'build talent' by looking within their organisations for the critical skills, knowledge and attributes required to execute their company's most important roles, while continuing to seek to attract the best people."

Execution is Key

Over at Reflections of a BizDrivenLife is an entry about one of our favorite topics: execution.

Here's the main points:

He just came back from a meeting with one of their principals. They recently named a new director in charge of a specific business segment. The reviews for the last quarter were not only great, but nothing short of spectacular. This new director was able to almost double their business last quarter compared to same period last year. That, in an industry that at best estimates, grew by less than 20 percent.

BOTTOMLINE: Was there new strategy? No, there was not. The company basically used the same strategy that they have been using the same few years, but with simply more focus on execution. When you see great companies and not-so-great companies, more and more , you see the difference is in the execution. Ideas are a dime a dozen. If you have new initiatives being undertaken, and you are not getting the results you need, maybe it is not that the idea was no good. But maybe it was really a great idea, but just not executed well.

Great Companies Aren’t Born - They’re Grown

Here's a great one from the folks over at Signal vs. Noise (37 Signals)

Apple started in a garage. Dell started in a dorm room. Starbucks started with a single store. Nike started out of a car trunk. Crate & Barrel started with a single store without budget for displays so they used shipping crates and barrels to display their products. Anthony Maglica started making Mag Lights in his garage. Google started as a thesis. eBay and Amazon share similar stories.

BOTTOMLINE: Great companies need to grow into great companies. They need room to make mistakes. They need room to go unnoticed for a while. They’re just like people. Be ambitious, but grow into it.

Organizational DNA and Unlocking Great Performance

The big management book for the fall appears to be Results: Keep What's Good, Fix What's Wrong, and Unlock Great Performance.

Gary Neilson from Booz Allen makes the case that companies have personalities or "Organizational DNA". He says it is important to understand the business' DNA before you can optimize performance.

An organization's DNA is made up of four building blocks—decision rights, information, motivators, and structure—and this largely determine how a firm looks and behaves, both
internally and externally.

Based on these four building blocks, Neilson profiles organizations into one of seven broad types—four unhealthy, and three healthy:

Passive-Aggressive. “Everyone agrees, but nothing changes.”

Fits-and-Starts. “Let 1,000 flowers bloom."

Outgrown. “The good old days meet a brave new world.”

Overmanaged. “We’re from corporate, and we’re here to help.”

Just-in-Time. “Succeeding by the skin of our teeth”

Military Precision. “Flying in formation”

Resilient. “As good as it gets” This is the organization that inspires both awe and envy . . . because everything seems to come so easily to it: profits, talent, respect. Like the popular kid in high school who got all As and lettered in track, the Resilient organization seems destined for greatness; it fires on all cylinders. Resilient organizations are flexible, forward looking, and fun, and they attract team players. While it may hit a bump in the road—as all companies do—the Resilient organization bounces back immediately, having learned from the experience. The Resilient organization is the healthiest of all the profiles, precisely because it doesn’t believe its own press; rather, it is always scanning the horizon for the next competitive battle or market innovation.

You can download the TOC and first chapter here.

Identifying the Real Root Cause

What is the best way to identify the root cause (major cause) of variation in the process creating a defined problem?

Some use Pareto Diagram, others using a questioning method (ask "why" 5-7 times), others use brainstorming, voting, etc.

Mike over at Got Boondoggle offers this recommendation:

Because all these methods are widely used to help identify or organize potential root causes or "the most likely cause." However, none of them actually can identify the real root cause.

The only way and best way is by testing and verifying. Without data to prove that it is a root cause, you only have a list of possible root causes. The root cause will be verified when you can pull it in and out of the process resulting in the problem appearing and disappearing. Think of it as a light switch that can turn the light on and off on command.

Dell's 2005 Small Business Excellence Award

With all the advances in technology, sending e-mail isn't exactly brain surgery … or is it?

If you're Dr. Timothy Kriss, a rural Kentucky neurosurgeon and winner of the 2005 Dell/National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Small Business Excellence Award, the two are often part of a day's work.

Furthermore, Dr. Kriss is providing old-fashioned customer service by relying on what he knew least about -- information technology.

"Never before have so many entrepreneurs combined their creative energy with a smart use of IT to achieve their dreams," said Michael Dell. "Dr. Kriss exemplifies the drive, innovation and customer focus that helped Dell grow from its small-business roots over 20 years ago."

BOTTOMLINE: As the 2005 winner, Dr. Kriss will receive $30,000 in Dell technology and services, a lifetime NFIB membership and will spend a day at Dell's headquarters to learn best practices from Michael Dell and other senior Dell executives.

High Percentage of Executives Considering Career Change

Korn-Ferry International, a premier provider of executive search, outsourced recruiting and leadership development solutions, recently conducted a survey that found that more than half (51%) the 1700 executives questioned would change careers if they could.

More findings from the executive survey:

• 21% would be highly likely to make a different choice.
• 30% would be likely to make a different choice
• 62% anticiplate making a major career change before retirement as being "highly likely"
• Another 36% consider making a major career change before retirement as being "likely"
• 62 percent would "definitely" recommend their profession to somebody embarking on his or her career

BOTTOMLINE: Leading organizations can best address this shift and retain key talent by better understanding the career motives of their executives and creating professional development plans for emerging executives that support these motives.

Disney - and How Learning Impacts Excellence

More advice is packed into this paragraph that in most:

“We do what we are.

We are what we think.

What we think is determined by what we learn.

What we learn is determined by what we experience and what we experience is determined by what we expose ourselves to and what we do with that experience.”

Mike Vance, founder and Dean of Disney University

College Football - And Persistance

Two amazing examples of persistance - from NCAA Football.

1. Michigan vs. Penn State - with .01 seconds left, Michigan, who drove down field, scores the winning touchdown, and defeats unbeaten Penn State, 27-25.

2. USC vs. Notre Dame, with .03 seconds left, USC, who drove down field, scores the winning touchdown, and USC remains unbeaten by winning 34-31.

BOTTOMLINE: Persistance - never give up, never saying I'm done, I quit. It doesn't get any better than this...!

Discipline Quotes of The Day - 10/14/05

"Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There's plenty of movement, but you never know if it's going to be forward, backwards, or sideways."
(H. Jackson Brown, Jr.)

"You can never conquer the mountain. You can only conquer yourself."
(Jim Whittaker)

"Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time leading yourself—your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct. Invest at least 20% leading those with authority over you and 15% leading your peers. If you don't understand that you work for your mislabeled 'subordinates,' then you know nothing of leadership. You know only tyranny."
(Dee Hock, Founder and CEO Emeritus. VISA International)

"Nothing is more harmful to the service, than the neglect of discipline; for that discipline, more than numbers, gives one army superiority over another."
(George Washington)

"I think the guys who are really controlling their emotions ... are going to win."
(Tiger Woods)

"There are no short cuts to any place worth going."
(Beverly Sills)

"Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power."
(Lao Tzu)

"Leaders aren't born they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that's the price we'll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal."
(Vince Lombardi)

"The individual who wants to reach the top in business must appreciate the might and force of habit. He must be quick to break those habits that can break him—and hasten to adopt those practices that will become the habits that help him achieve the success he desires."
(J. Paul Getty)

"A successful career will no longer be about promotion. It will be about mastery."
(Michael Hammer)

Ernest Hemingway - And Excellence

Few can argue with excellence, when it comes from the written word.

Even fewer can argue with excellence, when it comes from a great writer.

This, from Ernest Hemingway:

"It's enough for you to do it once -- for a few men to remember you.

But if you do it year after year, then many people remember you and they tell it to their children, and their children and grandchildren remember and, if it concerns books, they can read them.

And if it's good enough, it will last as long as there are human beings."

And this, from Glenn Gleason, with Life, Work and the Pursuit of Excellence:

"You have created what I think will be a book and method that will be used for generations."

And this, from Sam Decker, with Decker Marketing

"For pragmatists and those who love execution, I give this book a strong recommend. Buy Six Disciplines of Excellence."

Gates - On Microsoft and Continual Innovation

On a recent visit to the University of Michigan, Bill Gates spoke to about 1,000 high school and college students at Rackham Auditorium.

Regardless of what you think about Microsoft, you have to appreciate these takeaways:

• Every morning when Bill Gates gets up, he thinks of pioneering high-tech companies like Digital Equipment Co., Wang and Control Data Corp. that in the early and mid-'70s were seemingly as invincible in their day as Microsoft is today. The lesson on what happened to those once top companies -- all now defunct -- has not been lost on Gates.
• The strength in Microsoft, Gates said, is variety and constant innovation. "If you look at Microsoft, about half the things we do all by ourselves ... and we have no competitors," he said. "The other half of the things we do we succeed in by being super-good competitors. It's great to have that mix."
• "You wake up each day and say, 'Wow, Google's doing a good job on this and Sony's doing a good job on that,' " he says. "You want to be forward-looking and always basically fearful. You better prove yourself every time."

BOTTOMLINE: Don't think Gates has lost his momentum. As Microsoft's new products roll out and people see the impact, there will be a "self-correcting reality," he predicted. In other words, the company isn't over the hill quite yet.